STATE Vs. MANINDRA NATH DAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Reference under Section 307(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure made by the Sessions Judge of Midnapore recommends the acquittal of Manindra Nath Das and Ananda Mohan Das who were put on their trial along with another, namely, Narayan Mahato, in connection with the alleged murder of Kulabala Dassi, widow of Khandu Das. Manindra was charged under Section 302 I. P. C., Ananda under Section 302 read with Section 109 I. P. C. and Narayan Mahato also was charged under Section 302 read with Section 109 I. P. C. The Jury unanimously found Narayan Mahato not guilty of the charge against him and the learned Judge accepting that verdict acquitted him. The Jury found Manindra Das guilty under Section 304 Part I of the I. P. C. and not guilty under Section 302 I. P. C. and Ananda Mohan Das was found guilty under Section 304 Part I read with Section 109 I. P. C:

(2.) The case for the prosecution briefly is that Khandu Das, husband of Kulabala Dassi is said to have been murdered sometime in May 1957 and in that connection Manindra Das and his brothers Debendra and Phanindra were arrested. Manindra was released on bail on the 5th Asar 1364 B.S. corresponding to the 21st June 1957. It is said that Kulabala was a valuable witness for the prosecution in that case. Manindra is alleged to have told Jnanada, mother of Khandu immediately after his release on bail that Kulabala would be put an end to as her existence is prejudicial to their safety. Then, on the 8th of Asar corresponding to 24-6-1957 at night when Lulu Das, a brother of Khandu along with his brother-in-law Bharat Mal went to attend a Jatra performance in the village of Fingabundh, the accused Manindra with the help of other accused persons is said to have strangled Kulabala to death and then to have left her dead body hanging by means of rope from a wooden peg on the backside of the wall of her room. Next morning Lulu Das and Bharat Mal came back at about dawn and when Lulu Das went to ease himself he found Kulabala hanging from a peg on the back-side of the wall of her room. At this time he also noticed the accused Manindra who is a potter by profession standing near his pottery shed and Manindra asked Lulu to take the body of their Boudi inside their house and when Lulu Das told him that he alone could not take the body inside the house, Manindra came along, helped him in taking down the body by cutting the rope and placing it over a Khatia on the verandah. He also suggested that the rope should be kept inside their Chal and further asked him not to tell anyone that he had helped in bringing down the dead body inside the house. Jnanada, the mother of Khandu who was sleeping on the same verandah as Kulabala herself claims to have heard her daughter-in-law groaning and also the voice of Manindra when he said that if she gave out his name, then he would kill her and her son as well. From that voice Jnanada recognized the presence of Manindra in their house and thereafter her daughter-in-law was tied and taken away from there but she did not see what happened later. The local Chowkidar and some of the villagers came to their house and were told by Lulu of what he knew. An information was given by Lulu at the Police Station and this is Ext. 1. In that statement all that Lulu said is that he returned from the Jatra performance in the small hours of the night and then in the morning after waking up when he was going out to ease himself he found Kulabala hanging with a rope round her neck from the wooden peg of the thatch behind her own room and that in order to ascertain whether she was alive he himself pulled down the body along with the noose made of rope and found that she was dead. Then his mother also came there running and saw everything. The Chowkidar also came and heard of everything. He further stated in this statement that the dead body did not contain any other mark except the mark caused by the noose, The cause of her death was not known. It was further mentioned that on being released on bail Manindra who had been sent for trial as one of the murderers of his brother Khandu came back home and unlike others of the village neither he nor anyone of his company came in the morning. Then the police came along and after a certain amount of enquiry a First Information Report was recorded by an A. S. I. on his own motion and that is Ext. 3. The reasons why at that stage the police suspected the death of Kulabala to be due to homicidal strangulation seem to be, first, that the post mortem report shows it to be a case of homicidal strangulation and secondly that the height of the woman was 3 cubits and a half, that is, 5ft 3" and the height of the peg from which the body was found hanging was about 4 or 4 1/4 cubits from the ground, that is, 6ft or 6ft 3" from which the Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police thought that the feet of the woman would touch the ground if she was hanging from that peg. The police sent up the three accused, namely, Manindra, Ananda and Narayan and then after a preliminary enquiry they were committed on charges under Section 302 and Section 302 read with Section 109 of the Indian Penal Code.

(3.) The defence of Manindra and Ananda was that they were not guilty and that they have been, falsely implicated through concocted evidence. It appears also to have been suggested on behalf of the defence that Kulabala might have put an end to ' her own life as a result of the chastisement she received from Jnanada on account of her reputed intrigue with Debeudra, Manindra's brother.