RAM MURTI Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) SHRI Sukhdeo Mirdha, the Sessions Judge of Partapgarh, has submitted this reference for quashing an order of commitment made by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Begun, dated the 26th April, 1960. The accused in the case have been thereby committed for trial under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including sec. 304. They are all police officials. One of the accused Ram Murti was Sub-Inspector Police at Nimbahera Police Station at the relevant time and the other four accused were then serving as constables under him.

(2.) ON 24th March, 1960 a report was lodged at that Police Station about a theft of 13 seers of opium from the house of one Ramchandra Kumawat. ON that report, a case under secs. 454 and 380 of the Indian Penal Code was registered. ON the same date one Padamchand was arrested in connection with that case and it is said that 8 seers of opium was recovered from his possession. The case of the prosecution further is that from Padam Chand the police officers learnt that the rest of the opium was with one Mulchand Soni having his shop at village Badi. Mulchand was then sent for at Police Station, Nimbahera, on 26th March, 1960, for interrogation. It is said that he was detained at the Police Station for the whole of that night. ON the following morning, he was taken to village Badi by the five accused and on interrogation, it is said, that Mulchand informed them that opium was lying concealed in his house underneath a chair. A search was made but nothing was found. ON this, Mulchand was given a beating by the accused and he was asked to point out where the opium actually lay concealed. Mulchand is then said to have made another statement but on that statement also, nothing was recovered and a fresh beating followed by the accused persons. Mulchand then said that the opium was in his shop. The shop was then scarched but again nothing was recovered and then, it is said that at his instance one Likhmichand was called and some opium was recovered from him. It is further stated that Mulchand was again beaten by the five accused because the rest of the opium had still not been recovered. He was then put in a cart and taken to a Chowki in the village where again he received beating but no opium could be recovered. Due to these repeated beatings the condition of Mulchand worsened. Head Constable Shridhar was then sent to Nimbahera and a jeep in the use of the Deputy Superintendent Police was obtained from there. Mulchand was put in that jeep and taken to Nimbahera, evidently for the purposes of medical assistance, but no doctor was available and it is said that by the time Mulchand reached the Hospital there was no life left in him. Accused Ram Murti along with the other accused Shri Kishansingh and Shri Manoharsingh then took the body of Mulchand in the same jeep towards Javad, a place in the Madhya Pradesh. Somewhere near the court building in Javad at the instance of Ram Murthi accused Kishansingh and Manoharsingh took out the body of Mulchand from the jeep and went away with the body saying that they were going to hand it over to his relatives. They returned after an hour and said that the body of Mulchand had been entrusted to his relatives and the jeep then returned with the accused to Nimbahera. As Mulchand did not come back from the custody of the police officers there was an agitation in Nimbahera on 1st April, 1960. A report was lodged at the Police Station by Udairam, the husband of the sister of the wife of Mulchand, in which it was stated that Mulchand had been mercilessly beaten to death by the accused. ON that report, a case was registered and after investigation, the accused were put up on trial under sec. 302 Indian Penal Code. In the course of the investigation it was found that the dead body of Mulchand was lying in a well in Madhya Pradesh and the allegation that it had been given to the relatives of Mulchand was false. The post mortem of the dead body also revealed that death had taken place due to the rupture of the spleen.