RAGGHA Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is the appeal of Raggha, caste Kurmi, age 24, from the conviction of the learned Sessions Judge of Farrukbabad, who, on the 21 of April 1925, sentenced him (Raggha) to death in respect of the murder of one Mangli.

(2.) The curious feature about this case, and which rendered it advisable, in my opinion, to seek the assistance of a third Judge, wag that the body of Mangli was never recovered.

(3.) The facts can be stated very shortly. There had been a long standing quarrel over a piece of land in Balipurwa Raggha, with the aid of other people, had forcibly dispossessed Mangli. Mangli had recourse to the Courts, and on the 5 of December, 1924, he being the plaintiff in a suit, was declared by a judgment on that date to have the right to the possession of this land. That decision, and possibly another circumstance connected with Mangli, namely, that he was said to have taken a Gadaria woman into his keeping, may have made Maogli an object of enmity to a number of people. But at all events, Mangli was beyond any question alive on the afternoon of the 6 of December, and his movements have been traced on that day with complete accuracy up to the point when he was at the village Beta, about a mile distant from his home. From that time, when probably it was beginning to be dark, Mangli has never been seen alive by anybody. Not having returned home, his relatives, after a time, became uneasy, and having learnt of his movements from the Court towards his home, they began to make a search, and on the 8 of December, probably when the light was failing, Jagan Nath passing along a nala which would be the way which Mangli would take if he were proceeding towards his home, found four patches of dried blood. Jagan Nath went back and brought another witness. They examined the marks, and eventually on that same afternoon they went to the thana and made the first information report. Therein they set out that there had been the litigation relating to land and the name of Raggha, the accused in this case, is the first name suggested as one of the men who might be the cause of Mangli's disappearance. Prom the 8 to the 15 no step was taken. On the 15 the Sub-Inspector returned to his thana and commenced his investigation. He having seen where the blood stains had been, the blood and the earth having been previously collected and sent to the Imperial Serologist, the Sub-Inspector called certain suspected persons to appear at the nala. Amongst them was Raggha. When Raggha was asked to walk across the place, he showed signs of great uneasiness and apprehension. Laltu, another suspect, was equally agitated. He is not before the Court. The Sub-Inspector thereupon took them back to Balipurwa and questioned them. Raggha made a statement - what that statement was in its terms we do not know. Laltu corroborated the statement with the result that a search was made in a large and deep pool in the river Aisan, about 1? mile away from the place where the marks of blood had been found. A diver having been sent in and this pool having been dragged the result was that various articles of clothing, 4 or 5 in number, were recovered from that pool, and were subsequently satisfactorily proved to have been the property of Mangli.