STATE Vs. ABDUL RAHAMAN MANDAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ABDUL Rahaman Mandal alias Rahim Mandal was put on his trial before an Addl. Judge, 24 Parganas, sitting with, a Special Jury under Section 302, I. P. C., and convicted under that Section on the unanimous verdict of the jury and sentenced to death. The proceedings have been submitted to this Court under Section 374, Cr. P. C., for confirmation of the death sentence and Abdul Rahaman. Mandal has also preferred an appeal so that the entire case is now before us.

(2.) THE case for the prosecution briefly is that Abdul Rahaman Mandal used to stay in a south -facing pucca room along with his son. Fate Ali aged about 12, and Arfan Bibi, his daughter, used to stay in another hut in the same compound with her husband Miajaddin, Mondal. On 4 -2 -1953, in the afternoon Moslem Mondal of Bishnupur who was the husband of a sister of Miajuddin's father visited the house of Abdul Rahaman Mandal, took his meal there at night and slept on a separate bed in the -same room where the accused Abdul Rahaman Mandal slept with his son Fate Ali on a different bed. At about 1.30 a.m. that night Fate Ali woke up on hearing a groaning sound and in the light of the hurricane lantern burning inside the room he saw his father striking Moslem Mandal with a Hesho which is a kind of daq. On seeing that he started crying out and his father asked him not to cry out like -that and at the same time threatened to kill him if he went on doing so. He then caught hold of Fate Ali by the hand but Fate Ali somehow succeeded in opening the door with his left hand. His cries had meanwhile brought Arfan Bibi and Miajaddin near the room where the incident took place. When Miajaddin saw the accused catching: hold of Fate Ali he released him from his grip and Fate Ali went outside and raised a hue and cry. The accused then struck Miajaddin with a baton and Miajaddin fell down on the court -yard while t he accused sat upon his chest and tried to throttle him. Meanwhile some neighbours of the accused came along on hearing the hue and cry raised by Fate Ali and his sister Arfan Bibi, released Miajaddin from the grip of the accused and tied him to a plantain tree with a rope. Moslem Mandal had died on his bed inside the room as a result of the injuries he had received and a bloodstained spade (Ex. I), a blood -stained Hesho (Ex. II), and a Chheni (Ex. III) were found lying close to the dead body of Moslem Mandal. To the neighbours who had assembled on hearing the cries of Fate Ali and Arfan Bibi, Fate Ali is alleged to have stated that it was his father who had killed Moslem Mandal. One of the neighbours was Narendra Krishna Halder. He sent for the Chowkidars and when the Chowkidars arrived he himself left for Rajar -hat Police Station which was about 5 miles away & reported the occurrence at 4.30 a.m. The Sub -Inspector after having recorded the first information report arrived at the place of occurrence next morning, held an inquest on the dead body of Moslem Mandal which was lying inside the room of the accused and sent it for post mortem examination to Basirhat. The Sub -Inspector found the accused tied to a plantain tree with a rope, took him into custody, seized the blood -stained spade and the bloodstained Hesho, Exhibits I and II respectively, and the Chheni, Ex. III, and certain other Alamats. Miajaddin who had been roughly handled by the accused, and the accused himself were also sent for examination of their injuries by a Doctor of Rajarhat viz., Dr. Tara -nath Bhattacharya, and the blood -stained clothings etc., were sent to the Chemical Examiner for examination and report. The Police after investigation submitted a charge sheet against the accused.

(3.) THE defence of the accused was that he was not guilty. In the cross -examination of the witnesses - various suggestions were thrown out viz., that the occurrence did not take place in the room of the accused as alleged by the prosecution and that Moslem Mandal was murdered elsewhere and that the accused was falsely implicated at the instance of Narendra Krishna Halder and Abdul Sattar who wanted to grab the homestead and the land of the accused. The accused, however, in a lengthy statement under Section 342, Cr. P. C., said that when Moslem Mandal was introduced to him by Miajaddin as an intending purchaser of his property and was asked to sleep in his room, the accused objected because Moslem Mandal was stout and strong but as no heed was paid to his objection and Moslem Mandal was allowed to sleep on a different bed in the same room, he himself could not sleep out of fear and sat outside the mosquito curtain under which his son Fate Ali was sleeping. At about 3 a.m. Moslem Mandal came to assault him with a knife and so for fear of life the accused aimed a blow with a Hesho at the leg of the customer but he could not definitely say on which part of the body of the customer that blow actually fell. Then his son Fate Ali woke up and either he or his son Fate Ali opened the door when Miajaddin and another ' man entered the room and started beating him, and one Budha Mandal protested but Miajaddin said that as the accused had murdered a man there was no reason why he should not be beaten. The accused further said that he became unconscious as a result of the assault and he did not recover consciousness till the next morning when he found many other persons assembled in the house.