SHER ALI SARDAR Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Three sisters Saira @ Renu (16 years), P.W. 1, Sahanaz @ Benu (14 years), P.W. 2 and Salma @ Minu (13 years), P.W. 3 left their residence in the morning of 15.07.1998 for their respective schools. When Sahanaz (P.W. 2) and Salma (P.W. 3) left their residence around 10.30 a.m. they found their uncle Sher Ali Sardar @ Rajesh having an altercation with their mother over money. Their uncle for the last couple of months had been misbehaving with their mother and had even tried to throttle her over monetary demands out of the monies sent to the family by their father Raju Sardar, P.W. 10, from Japan wherein he was residing. Little did they know that they were seeing their mother for the last time. Sahanaz's class was given an early holiday as one of her classmate had died. When she prematurely returned from school she found that their room was under lock and key. She felt that her mother had gone to bring Saira from school, as usual, and waited for her in a neighbour's house. Around 2.00 p.m. her uncle, the appellant herein, returned and opened the padlock of the room. Saira, the elder sister, also returned from school in the meantime. Strangely their mother had not gone to bring Saira back and when the sisters enquired about the whereabouts of their mother, the appellant showed them a letter written in Urdu by their mother. The sisters took the letter to a neighbour and the latter read out the letter to them which stated that their mother had left them. The sisters were surprised since their mother ordinarily did not go outside and that she was not conversant with Urdu. When they went back to their room and to their utter surprise they found that footwear of their mother, i.e. two pair of Chappals were inside the room and the rice set on the fire for boiling was burnt. These signs made sisters suspect that their mother had not voluntarily left the house. Such suspicion was further strengthened by the information they received from the neighbourhood that the appellant was seen going in a rickshaw with a bag in the afternoon on that day. They found that a bag was missing from their room. When they enquired of their uncle as to such facts he became perplexed and was unable to explain the same.

(2.) These circumstances gave rise to a strong suspicion in the mind of the two sisters that their mother had been killed by their uncle and her body was removed in the said bag in order to hush up the crime. With the assistance of the neighbours, particularly, Urusha Begum, P.W. 14 Saira @ Renu, P.W. 1, reported the incident at Watgunge police station whereupon, P.W. 29, the Investigating Officer of the instant case, reduced her complaint into writing and registered Watgunge police station Case No. 153 dated 15.07.1998 under Section 302 I P C against the appellant for investigation.

(3.) Soon thereafter P.W. 29 went to the place of occurrence, and arrested the appellant and brought him to the police station for interrogation. In the course of investigation, the appellant led the investigating agency to a place situated in front of premises no. 3A, Gariahat Road, Kolkata 700 019 where he claimed to have dumped the body. The local people around the place informed that a female dead body had been recovered and was removed by the police personnel attached to Gariahat police station. Thereafter P.W. 1 and 2 along with appellant were taken Gariahat police station. P. W 1 and 2 identified the bag and other articles including the ornaments of their mother and the shirt and lungi of the appellant, and, later on, identified the dead body at the morgue as that of their mother. Post-mortem revealed that the said victim had suffered, inter alia, head injury from a hard blunt substance. The serological report also confirmed that the blood was found in the bag and the other articles like ploy sheet, rope, gunny bags, bed-sheet, shirt and lungi which were found inside the said bag. Investigation further revealed that the appellant with the assistance of Abdul Samad, P.W 4, the local rickshaw puller had removed a heavy bag from the premises around 12 noon and the rickshaw puller had taken the appellant with the bag in front of Kwality ice cream factory at Diamond Harbour Road wherefrom the appellant had boarded a taxi along with the said bag. P.W. 11 Mehmud Azaz, a neighbour, who was purchasing meat in the locality had also seen the appellant in the rickshaw with a bag. It is further the prosecution case that one Sumita Lal, P. W. 5 and her mother-in-law, P.W. 6, who were Jhupri (shack) dwellers on the pavement near Telephone Exchange Office at Ballygunge Phari had seen the appellant alighting from the taxi and putting the said bag under a tree and the latter asked P.W. 5 to keep watch over the said bag. Since the appellant did not return upto 4 p.m., P.W. 5 informed the matter to the local police station i.e. Gariahat Police Station whereupon the police officers attached to Gariahat Police Station being P.W. 23, and 27 seized the said bag and recovered the dead body of the victim therefrom along with other incriminating articles. During investigation, P.W. 4, 5 and 6, identified the appellant in the test of identification parade.