HAPPU Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Happu, caste Nat, as charged under Section 302, Indian Penal Code, in the Court of the Sessions Judge of Bereilly the murdering one Babu Singh by administering arsenic to him. The learned Sessions Judge found Happu guilty and sentenced him to death. Happu appeals to this Court and e have before us an application for confirmation of the death sentence.

(2.) On 21 November 1932, Babu Singh ate his evening meal and thereafter at the invitation of Happu went to his house. Happu gave Babu Singh a chatak of broken pera to eat telling him it as the parshad of Ganga and that he had kept it for him. Babu Singh ate the pera and returned home. He felt ill, and hen he reached his o n house he as attacked by vomiting and purging. He as taken to the hospital and died t o days later. These facts are proved. In a charge of murder by arsenic poisoning it sessential for the prosecution to prove: (a) That the person alleged to have been murdered died of arsenic poisoning (b) That the accused person administered arsenic to the deceased the intent to murder. The Civil Surgeon as called by the prosecution. He made the post mortem examination of the stomach and intestines of Babu Singh. He said: From the history and the post mortem appearance of the stomach and intestines I am of opinion that death as due to an irritant poison of the nature of arsenic.

(3.) This evidence is insufficient to prove death by arsenic poisoning. From an examination of the authorities on Medical Jurisprudence and the medical evidence in arsenic poisoning cases tried in England, t o facts are apparent; firstly, that the simptoms of arsenic poisoning before death are indistinguishable from the simptoms of some natural diseases, such as Cholera and acute Dysentery. Both diseases are common in India and both can cause sudden death. Secondly, it is not possible to be certain by a naked eye post mortem examination of the stomach and intestines that death as due to arsenic poisoning. Post mortem appearances similar to those observed in undoubted cases of arsenic poisoning are also similar to those produced by certain natural diseases, and other irritant poisons. It is just possible too that under certain conditions they might be produced by the action of the digestive gastric juices of the stomach upon the tissues after death.