SHER SINGH Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal is directed against the judgment dated 19.1.88, passed by the Additional Sessions Judge No. 2, Hanurnangarh (Camp Suratgarh), by which the learned Additional Sessions Judge convicted the accused appellant for the offence under Section 302 IPC and sentenced him to undergo imprisonment for life and a fine of Rs. 500/ - and in default of payment of fine further to undergo three months' rigorous imprisonment.

(2.) APPELLANT Sher Singh was tried by the learned Additional Sessions Judge No. 2, Hanumangarh (Camp Suratgarh) for committing the murder of his mother -in -law Smt. Mehro Bai on 21.7.85 out - side village Siduwala Khiraliya in the escape land by inflicting injuries with a knife. The case of the prosecution is that on 21,7.85, accused Sher Singh, alongwith his mother -in -law Smt. Mehro Bai (aged about 65 years) and his daughter PW1 Sukho Bai, left his village Dhandiya and boarder a bus from village Jalalabad and came to Bus Stand of Rajasthan Canal. After leaving the bus at 5.00 PM, they proceeded towards village Khileriya, and went to the house of P.W. 4 Govind Ram and took water. From there they proceeded towards village 4 SSPD where P.W. 2 Smt. Bakho Bai Alongwith her husband P.W. 3 Tota Singh was living. When they reached near the escape. Sher Singh took out a knife and inflicted three/four injuries on the neck of Smt. Mehro Bai and committed her murder. Sukho Bai and Smt. Mehro bai tried to resist, whereupon the accused threatened his daughter Sukho Bai that she should keep quiet otherwise she would, also, be done to death. After committing the murder of Mehro Bai, the accused concealed her deadbody in the bushes and left the place. The accused and Sukho Bai thereafter came to Sardargarh, boarded the train and reached to village 3 ND, where the mother of the accused and his other brothers were living and Sukho Bai was left there with her grand mother. P.W. 4 Pritam Singh had seen the accused, his mother in law Smt. Mehro Bai and his daughter Sukho Bai leaving the bus at Bus Stand of the Rajasthan Canal and he asked P.W. 2 Bakho Bai the daughter of the deceased and the sister - in -law of the accused - that the accused, his daughter and mother -in -law had came there by a bus: whether they had reached her house or not ? On 26.7.85, one selection was seen by P.W. 12 Het Ram in the escape which was being carried by the dogs, who reported the matter to the Sarpanch and thereafter FIR Ex.P.14 was registered under Section 174 Cr.PC. PW13 Mohan Singh, SHO registered the FIR and handed over the investigation to P.W. 9 Modi Ram, who prepared the inquest report and recorded the statement of the witnesses. When P.W. 2 Smt. Bakho Bai came to know regarding recovery of the deadbody in the escape, she became suspicious that that might be the deadbody of her mother. She, thereafter, alongwith her husband, went to village Dhandiya but neither her mother nor the accused was available there. Thereafter she searched for her mother but could not know the whereabouts of her. Then she, her husband and the Sarpanch of the village went to village 3 ND, where they found P.W. 1 Sukho Bai - the daughter of the accused in the house of her grand mother. On enquiry, Sukho Bai disclosed that her father (the Accused) had committed the murder of her maternal grand mother Smt. Mehro Bai in the escape in the Rohi of village Sidhuwala Khileriya. The accused, also, met them and on enquiry he made a disclosure that he committed the murder of his mother in law in the escape in the Rohi of village Sidhuwala Khileriya. P.W. 2 Bakho Bai, alongwith her husband P.W. 3 Tota Singh, thereafter went to Police Station, Suratgarh and on 1.9.85, lodged the FIR P.W. 13 Mohan Singh, SHO, after registration of the report, conducted the investigation arrested the accused and after completion of the investigation presented the challan. The prosecution, in support of its case, examined thirteen witnesses. The accused did not examine any witness in defence. The learned trial Court, after trial, convicted and sentenced the accused appellant, as stated above. While convicting and sentencing the accused -appellant, the learned Additional Sessions Judge Placed reliance over the evidence of PW1 Sukho Bai, the Extra -Judicial confession made by the accused before the witnesses and the circumstance of last seen of the deceased in the company of the accused. The learned trial Court, also, placed reliance over the recovery of the blood - stained knife and the clothes of the deceased as well as the report of the Serologist, though it was not exhibited in evidence nor was it put to the accused at the time of recording his statement under Section 313 Cr.PC.

(3.) THE first question which requires consideration in the present case, is: whether the skeleton, which was recovered from the escape of Rajasthan Canal in the Rohi of village Sidhuwala Khilerlya was that of deceased Smt. Mehro Bai ? To prove this, the prosecution has placed reliance over the statement of P.W. 1 Sukho Bai, in whose presence the alleged murder was committed by the accused and the recovery of the clothes of the deceased from that place. As per the post mortem report Ex.P. 13, an incomplete and decomposed deadbody of a female was found there. Most of the parts of the deadbody were missing. Lower jaw was absent, the teeth were absent in the upper jaw, right leg bone near the knee were absent, left leg bones were absent, right upper arm bone (humerus) and radius and ulna were present, rest was absent and the left humerus bone was present but other parts of the bones of left upper arm were absent. The Medical Officer opined that the deadbody was highly decomposed and incomplete and, therefore, the cause of death could not be ascertained. The post mortem report further shows that the mouth, pharynx and Oesophagus, stomach and its contents, small intestines and large intestines alongwith their contents were, also, not present. As per the post mortem report, the age of the female skeleton was between fifty to sixty years. Though the name of Dr. Sahi Ram, who conducted the post mortem was given in the Calendar of Witnesses but he was not produced and was left over by the prosecution. The age of the female skeleton, which was recovered, has been given by the doctor in the post -mortem report as fifty to sixty years while as per the written report given by P.W. 2 Smt. Bakhb Bai, the age of her mother was sixty -five years and her own age was given as forty -five years. Later on, P.W. 2 Smt. Bakho Bai tried to bring down her own age from 45 to 40 years and that of her deceased mother from 65 to 60 years during her examination in chief in order to bring it in the line with the age given in the Post Mortem Report. The deadbody was neither complete nor fit for identification. No clothes were found on the deadbody. Even the skin was not present on the skeleton. It is not the case of the prosecution that the clothes were taken away from the deadbody and were put at a place. According to P.W. 9 Modi Ram. the clothes were recovered from a place at a distance of fifteen feet from the place where the skeleton was lying. These clothes appear to have been planted by the investigating officer Modi Ram ASI with the connivance of Smt. Bakho Bai and Tota Singh because when the deadbody was in such a decomposed and incomplete position then the clothes would have been found, in a turn condition if at all possible, on the corpse it self and not lying at a place. P.W. 2 Bakho Bai and P.W. 3 Tota Singh have admitted in their statement that they came to know regarding recovery of the deadbody from the escape as their village is situated only at distance of two to three kilometers from the place where the skeleton was found, but as per the statement of Tota Singh they did not go to the place wherefrom the skeleton was recovered but instead they went to village Dhandiya while P.W. 2 Smt. Bakho Bai has stated that they went to see the deadbody and at the time the clothes were found on the corpse. At page 28 of the Paper Book, it has been stated by her that: .........[vernacular ommited text]...........