ALI RAZA Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a reference made by the learned Sessions Judge of Patna under Section 374, Criminal P.C., for confirmation of the sentence of death, passed by him on one Ali Raza. The trial was with the aid of a jury which returned a verdict of guilty by a majority of four to three. Ali Raza has appealed against his conviction and sentence and the appeal has been heard along with the reference.

(2.) Mt. Soghra, for whose death Ali Raza is said to have been responsible, was a middle aged woman, who was the wife of one Billu Mian, a railway employee who resided at Khagaul. Shortly after the occurrence Billu Mian who was an engine driver was killed in a railway accident. Mt. Soghra died as the result of two thrusts with a knife in the abdomen. The Sub-Inspector found her lying dead in a room in her house at about 9.30 a.m., on 24 December 1942. It is clear that she must have been in her house when she was attacked and that death must have occurred within a very short time of the attack on her. At about 9 a.m., Mt. Kaniz, who is the sister of the appellant, Ali Raza, and her daughter, Akbari, a girl of about ten, had appeared at the police station at Khagaul. Both of them had obviously been attacked by some one armed with a knife and Mt. Kaniz lodged a first information, stating that it was her brother Ali Raza, who had attacked them. Mt. Kaniz is the wife of one Yusuf, who, also, belongs to Khagaul and is also an employee of the East Indian Railway. For some considerable time prior to the occurrence, Yusuf had, however, been stationed at Moghulsarai, and Mt. Kaniz had been living, not in her own house, but in the house of Billu. Billu had been carrying on an intrigue with her, and, eventually, Mt. Kaniz became pregnant by him. A week or so prior to the occurrence, she was delivered of a child, which, later, she and some other persons took to Gaya and disposed of.

(3.) According to the prosecution, the appellant, Ali Raza, had resented the intrigue between Billu and his sister and had been endeavouring to compel Billu to marry her. This Billu had declined to do, possibly because he had already two wives, or possibly because one or both of the wives had objected to it. It is said that at about 7.30 a.m. on 24 December 1942, Mt. Kaniz was sweeping the floor in one of the rooms in Billu's house when Ali Raza suddenly attacked her and then her young daughter, Akbari, with a knife. Both of them succeeded in getting out of the house and making their way to the police station. It is said that having attacked Mt. Kaniz and Akbari, and having chased them out of the house and a short distance along the road, Ali Raza then returned and attacked and killed Mt. Soghra. There was no one else in the house when the attack on Mt. Soghra took place, and the case for the prosecution, therefore, rests on circumstantial evidence. The circumstantial evidence which was relied on, was however of the most complete and convincing kind.