DILIP DAS Vs. STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Both these appeals arise out of the same JUDGMENT & ORDER of conviction as recorded by Sessions Judge, Kamrup in Sessions Case No. 149/93 on 10.8.94 holding the appellants guilty of offence punishable under Section 302/34 IPC and sentencing them to suffer imprisonment for life. They have been heard together and being decided by a common judgment.

(2.) What a delicate irony of fate that a young son hardly thirteen, should have been required to depose against his own mother, committing murder of her husband with the help of her paramour. Facts as established, in this case, raise an arresting thought that we have travelled far in time and thought from the days of Man, and the happy endings of all romantic love stories. "So they were married and lived happily ever after." Shakespeare in one of his Sonnets says - "Let me not to the Marriage of true minds Admit impendiments Love is not love Which alters when ill alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove."

(3.) Appellant Malkani Das 24, a mother of four children, lived happily with her husband Rupeswar Das, at Amtola, not far from the capital town of Gauhati. The other appellant, Dilip Das, a college going student aged about 22, lived nearby with his parents and four sisters. Malkani was suspected of infidelity by her husband. If her confessional statement is any indication, she had been carrying a clandestine affair with accused Dilip Das, for few months past. While still maintaining her outward appearance of a faithful wife and an affectionate mother but under this gloss lay an intrinsically pernicious soul. Perhaps this what Hamlet had in mind - "Lay not that flattering unaction to your soul ! It will but skin and film the ulcerous place." The affair lasted for about six seven months but the looseness of marriage tie and the seductibility of the woman was revealed on the fateful day, rather night of the 14th December, 1992, when the children along with their father had gone for a puppet show held at the school. A little before the show was to be over, Rupeswar left for home with his son Partho, soon to be followed by other kids, when they returned, Khagendra P.W.-1, found that an altercation was on between his father, on one side and his mother and Dilip Das on the other. Rupeswar asked his kids to have their meals, which they naturally did not, in face of what was going on.