EMPEROR Vs. MUSHNOORU SURYANARAYANA MURTHY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by the Public Prosecutor on behalf of Government against the acquittal of one Suryanarayana Murthi, on a charge of having murdered the girl, Rajalakshmi.

(2.) The facts of the case, so far as it is necessary to state them for the purposes of this appeal, are as follows: The accused, with the intentipn of killing Appala Narasimhulu, (on whose life he had effected large insurances without Appala Narasimhulu s knowledge, and in order to obtain the sums for which he was insured), gave him some sweetmeat (halva) in which a poison containing arsenic and mercury in soluble form had been mixed. Appala Narasimhulu ate a portion of the sweetmeat, and threw the rest away. This occured at the house of the accused s brother-in-law where the accused had asked Appala Narasimhulu to meet him. Rajalakshmi, who was aged 8 or 9 years, and who was niece of the accused, being ,the daughter of accused s brother-in-law, took some of the sweetmeat and ate it and gave some to another little child who also ate it. According it one account Rajalakshmi asked the accused for a portion of the sweetmeat, but according to the other account, which we accept as the true account, Appala Narasimhulu, after eating a portion of the sweetmeat threw away the remainder, and it was then picked up by Rajalakshmi without the knowledge of the accused. The two children who had eaten the poisoned sweetmeat, died from the effects of it, but Appala Narasimhulu, though the poison severely affected him, eventually recovered. The accused has been sentenced to transpiration for life for having attempted to murder Appala Narasimhulu. The question which we have to consider in this appeal is whether, on the facts stated above, the accused is guilty of the murder of Rajalakshmi.

(3.) I am of opinion that the accused did cause the death of Rajalakshmi and is guilty of her murder. The law on the subject is contained in Sections 299 to 301 of the Indian Penal Code and the whole question is whether it can properly be said that the accused "caused the death" of the girl, in the ordinary sense in which those words should be understood, or whether the accused was so indirectly or remotely connected with her death that he cannot properly be said to have "caused" it. It is not contended before us that the accused intended to cause the death of the girl, and we may take it for the purpose of this appeal that he did not know that his act was even likely to cause her death. But it is clear that he did intend to cause the death of Appala Narasimhulu. In order to effect this he concealed poison in a sweetmeat and gave it to him eat. It was these acts of the accused which caused the death of the girl, though no doubt her own action, in ignorantly picking up and eating the poison, contributed to bring about the result. Section 299 of the Indian Penal Code says : " Whoever causes death by doing an act with the intention of causing death, or with the intention of Causing such bodily injury as is likely to cause death, or with the knowledge that he is likely by such act to cause death, commits the offence of culpable homicide. It is to be observed that the section does not require that the offender should intend to kill (or know himself to be likely to kill) any particular person. It is enough if he "causes the death" of any one by doing an act with the intention of "causing death" to any one, whether the person intended to be killed or any one else. This is clear from the first illustration to the section, "A lays sticks and turf over a pit, with the intention of thereby causing death, or with the knowledge that death is likely to be thereby caused Z believing the ground to be firm, treads on it, falls in and is killed. A has committed the offence of culpable homicide."