SARABAI SUKHDAYAL Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) MT . Sarabai, a Christian, has been convicted of the murder of her husband, a head constable named Sukhdayal, at Tejgarh in the Saugor District, by administering dhatura to him, in his morning draught at tea. She has been convicted and sentenced to death by the Additional Sessions Judge, Saugor, and has appealed against that conviction. On the morning of 19th May the head constable Sukhdayal, who was living with his wife and a child of about two and half years named James in a police quarter in the station house of Tejgarh, got up early in the morning and with two companions of the station-house went to ease himself near the river. On his return he went to the station-house and after sometime between 7 and 8 o'clock returned to his quarters for his morning drink of tea. This according to the prosecution was prepared for him by his wife and he then returned to the station-house and resumed his work as usual. Shortly after resumption he complained of dryness of the throat, giddiness and numbness in the limbs and after primitive relief had been administered at the station-house was taken back to his quarters where he was placed on a cot outside his quarters and afterwards taken to a room inside. As his condition grew worse, despite under primiting remedies arrangements were made to take him to Damoh. He was taken first in a tonga and on the main road the party were able to obtain accommodation in a lorry. Sukhdayal died in the lorry three miles before reaching Damoh at about 5 o'clock in the afternoon. His wife Sarabai and her small son accompanied him when the party set out to Damoh and the wife locked up her house before going. The post mortem examination revealed no ascertainable cause of death. The brain was found to be congested and the right side of the heart was full of blood, the lungs were also congested and there was slight congestion of the liver and spleen.

(2.) THE contents of the stomach showed nothing unusual, and the medical officer at the post mortem noted the fact that the body which he saw almost immediately after death was very hot and this temperature persisted five hours after death. Being unable to suggest any definite cause of death the medical officer at the post mortem conjectured that death might be due to heat stroke. The contents of the stomach and viscera, however were preserved and sent to the Chemical Examiner for examination. Meanwhile the Circle Inspector considered that the possibilities of foul play could not be ignored and directed a search of the house. This took place on 22nd May. Mt. Sarabai who was still at Damoh was asked by summons to present herself but was unable to do so on account of her illness. She was undoubtedly ailing, although to what extent is a matter of dispute, on the day that her husband died, but there is no doubt that when she reached Damoh she was definitely ill and broke down and needed medical attention. The Sub-Inspector who took over charge on the day after the deceased's death at Tejgarh had already affixed seals and locks to the outside of the house which was found by him to be already locked. The search which was conducted in a proper manner revealed that the 'bagona' in which the tea was made still on the hearth containing tea, and some tea in an aluminium mug in the same room as the 'bagona'. This was the back room of the quarters which consisted of two rooms and the front and back verandah. Underneath the cot in the front room was found an empty cup and a saucer but there does not appear to be any evidence whether they appeared to have been used or not.

(3.) THE previous history of the ease is however against the theory of death by heat stroke. It is true that there is evidence that the deceased had been out of doors fishing during the middle of the previous day but the evidence is unanimous that he was in normal health shortly before the attack of giddiness; which ended in unconsciousness, and the symptoms described by the witnesses are consistent with dhatura poisoning and not all consistent with death by heat stroke. We have been unable to find any warrant for the proposition that an attack of heat stroke might occur with great suddenness early in the morning following prolonged exposure to the sun without any previous symptoms of malaise. On p. 645, Edn. 7 of the Lyon's Medical Jurisprudence, instances are given of remarkably high temperatures recorded in cases of dhatura poisoning, ranging from 105.4 to 108. This disposes of the high temperature of the corpse as a contra-indication of death by dhatura poisoning. It is further contended that in the absence of proof that the deceased was subject to a fatal dose of the poison, death as a result of that poison cannot be presumed and cases have been cited to support that view. Those cases dealt with suspicion of poisoning by arsenic when arsenic was found; in the viscera. Without considering these cases individually it is sufficients to say that in our opinion these eases have no real relevancy. Death by the administration of arsenic is from its external symptoms easily liable to be confused with death due to gastritis and kindred ailments and a careful quantitative analysis of the contents of the viscera is generally necessary in order to establish that death was actually caused by the arsenic found in the body. The symptoms of dhatura poisoning or poisoning by some form of atropin is characteristic and these symptoms cannot be attributed to any natural cause except possibly sun stroke or heat stroke and even in the latter cases the characteristic delirious aberration is absent. From ail the evidence which has been tendered to show that a fatal dose of dhatura was administered we are satisfied that the deceased did die from the effects of dhatura poisoning.