SUDHU KUMBHAR Vs. KING

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Applt. Sudbu Kumbhar was convicted for the murder of his own father Pahalu Kumbhar & satenced to transportation for life by the Ses. J. of Sundergarh, Sambalpur.

(2.) The offence was said to have been committed on 31-8-1947 in village Hamirpur P S, Eaghunathpaii in Gangpur State. That day was a day of of festivity for the villagers being the Rakhi Purnima & it appears that most of the males of the, village including the applt. & his father Pahalu took considerable quantities of rice beer (Handia). At about noon Pahalu after performing the usual worship & taking Khichiri meals lay clown for rest on the verandah of one of the rooms of his house. The females went to neighbouring-houses for taking their food. Just then the applt returned from somewhere, went inside the kitchen & finding (sic) to why no food or drink was kept for him. Thereupon Pahalu rebuked him for being a glutton (Ranka). This remark was said to have so much enraged the applt that he ran towards his father, dragged him from the verandah to the courtyard & attempted to throttle him by pressing his neck, His elder brother Budhu (P. W. 1) immediately ran to the spot & separated the two. But the father Pahalu was also so much enraged at this conduct of the applt. that he wanted to assault him & rushed towards him, But Budhu again intervened & separated the two. Then the father returned to the court-yard & the applt. went away & Budhu (p. w, l) thinking that nothing farther would, happen returned to the cow-shed in front of the house & lay on his cot. Soon afterwards he heard beating sound & a cry raised by his father. He ran to the court yard & found his father lying with a bleeding injury on his face & the applt. running away. Immediately an alarm was raised & Pahalu's brother Ajit Kumbhar (p. w. 2) came running there. An attempt was made to give first-aid to Pahalu but it was unsuccessful, In the meantime a search was made for the applt & he was found in a ditch close to river Koil which flows by the side of the village. He was immediately taken into custody & he admitted the crime before the villagers. He was found to be heavily drunk at the time of his arrest. In due course F. I. R. was lodged in the police station at about 7 p. m. that day & the case was investigated by the S. I. Sri Kheradhar Naik (p. w. 7). Pahalu'a corpse was also brought to the thana & the S. I. sent it to the Medical Officer for post mortem examination. A thicken woolen past (Kunchi) (ex. 1) 4"-l0" long & 6 1/2" girth stained with some blood was also produced before the S. I. This post was resovered from a place close to the place where Phalu fell.

(3.) The post-mortem examination on the corpse of Pabalu was made by Dr. S. C. Naik (p. w. 8) on the next day. He found a lacerated wound 1 1/4" x 1/2" bone deep on the middle part of the vault of the scalp. Another lacerated wound 3/4" x 1/3" skin deep was found on the right temporal area of the head. The frontal & both the parietal bones were found to be smashed like a cocoanut shell. The membranes of the brain were torn. The brain was also severely lacerated & a portion of the brainmatter protruded through the sites of the fractures. The stomach contained some undigested food with smell of liquor. Death was caused by shock & heart-failure resulting from the injury to the skull & the brain. A log of wood like Ex. 1 might have caused the injury on the head. The second lacerated injury on the head which was skin-deep might have been caused by a blow or a fall on the ground.