GANESH Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal by the accused Ganesh son of Dhanna Teli of village Kapren, District Bundi, against the judgment of the Sessions Judge, Bundi, dated the 15th October 1949 by which he convicted the accused of an offence under sec. 302 I. P. C. and sentenced him to transportation for life.

(2.) KESRILAL alias Kesra son of Kanha Teli of village Batawari, Tehsil Nanwa, came to the house of the accused in Kapren on the 9th of July 1948. The wife of the accused Ganesh and the wife of KESRILAL were both sisters. It is said that during the night between the 10th and nth of July 1948 he was murdered by the accused while asleep in the house of the accused. The accused is said to have inflicted an injury on the head of KESRILAL by means of a hammer thus causing his death. KESRILAL cried when he received the first blow of hammer and Bheria, Sundra and Modia, neighbours of the accused Ganesh, came to his house and enquired from him as to what had happened but the accused told them that his son had raised that cry in sleep and that nothing had happened. All of them therefore returned to their houses. The accused then buried the dead body of KESRILAL in his own house in order to hide the offence. About 20 days after this incident when KESRILAL did not return to his house his father Kanha went out in the search of his son. He came to Kapren and made enquiries and was told by the accused that his son had left Kapren long before, but when he came to know from the neighbours of Ganesh that his son had come and lived in the house of the accused and that a cry was heard during midnight by some of his neighbours, he suspected that something had gone wrong with his son. He therefore lodged a report at the police station Kapren on the 31st of July 1948. The police recovered the dead body of KESRILAL from the house of the accused from the information received from the accused on the 1st of August 1948 and the dead body was identified to be that of KESRILAL by his father Kanha. A hammer was also recovered from the house of the accused by the police which is alleged to have been used by the accused in murdering KESRILAL. A confession of the accused was also ecorded under sec. 164 Cr. P. C. by Mr. Rampratap Sharma, First Class Magistrate, Patna, but the accused in the course of the enquiry and trial retracted from it.

(3.) IN conclusion, it may be said that the offence of murder under sec. 302 I. P. C. has been proved against the accused Ganesh and the trial court was not wrong in convicting him. The sentence of the accused appears to be lenient but having regard to the position of the law and the practice then obtaining, the sentence passed by the lower court is not inappropriate.