RANJHA Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The learned Sessions Judge of Mahasu has by his judgment and order dated 21.4.1951 convicted Ranjha aged thirty, and Bhura, aged eighteen, under Section 302, read with Section 34, Penal Code, for having committed the murder of one Durga on the night between the 23rd and 24th August, 1950, and sentenced the former to death and the latter to transportation for life. They have both appealed, and the Sessions Judge has also submitted the proceedings to this Court for confirmation of the sentence of death passed on

(2.) That Durga met a violent death admits of no doubt. In the opinion of the doctor who performed the post-mortem, death was due to asphyxia caused by pressure on the wind pipe-obstructing respiration. According to him Durga died within a few minutes of suffocation.

(3.) The scene of murder was the deceased's doghari, or cattle-shed used also for human-habitation, in the jungle of Sawahu about ten miles from the nearest police outpost at Narkanda. Except for the dogharis of one Atma Ram, situate at a distance of about seventy yards, the deceased's doghari stood in a lonely spot. Atma Ram's , sister's son Harinand (P. W. 12) and servant Ohaunru (P. W. 10) were occupying his dogharis with his bullocks, and it is said that on the night in question Durga's younger brother Bala (P.W.3), a young boy aged about ten years, was also sleeping with him in his doghari. The deceased himself was a young lad of only twenty years. The permanent residential house of the deceased was in village Khola, It was a moon-lit night when the murder is said to have been committed since the full moon came on 27-8-1950.