RAM KALA Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Ram Kala, a young Jat of 18, who has been convicted under Secs.376 and 302, Indian Penal Code, and sentenced to death by the learned Sessions Judge of Bulandshahr, has come in appeal before us. Along with the appeal there is the record of the case for the confirmation of the sentence of death. The charge against the appellant, in common with two others, Sheodan and Karan Singh, was that they committed rape on one Bir Wati, a Jat girl, of 13, on 23rd. August 1944, in mauza Bharaoti in a field and then murdered her. Sheodan is of the same age as the appellant; Karan Singh is 45. Both Sheodan and Karan were acquitted as the evidence against them was not satisfactory. The story for the prosecution is briefly this : On 23 August 1944 Mt. Bir Wati, the deceased, along with her cousin, Mt. Vidya. Wati, went to her grandfather, Surja, with, his food and after giving the food, when she was on her way back, the appellant, Sheodan and Karan caught hold of her. Vidya Wati ran away and informed her mother about the incident. A hue and cry was raised and a search was made. Her corpse was found in a maize field belonging to the accused Sheodan. She had been raped and throttled. A report was sent to the police-station Siana by the Mukhia of mauza Bharaoti. The Station Officer arrived the next day, held an inquest and sent the body for post mortem examination. He took the clothes from the person of the deceased. He arrested Ram Kala, appellant and searched his house. He took the knickers Ram Kala was wearing at the time, and a Kurta and a dhoti from his house. He found the clothes blood-stained and injuries on the face and other parts of his body. Ram Kala was examined by the doctor. The Imperial Serologist also found his clothes stained with blood. He also found spermatozoa on some of them.

(2.) The defence of the appellant was that there was no search made. Nor were the knickers taken from his person. The further and the common defence of the appellant and the other two accused was that they were implicated on account of enmity with the Mukhia of the village, viz., Malook Singh. Before going into further detail, it might be mentioned that Mt. Bir Wati and Mt. Vidya Wati were cousins, daughters of two brothers, Ramphal and Himmat, sons of Surja, the grandfather, for whom the girls had taken the food. This Surja is the brother of a man named Chandan whose son Raghubir is one of the principal witnesses in the case. It might as well be mentioned that Bharaoti, the scene of the occurrence, and also the residence of the appellant adjoins mauza Saidpur, the residence of the family of the deceased. There is another village Khairpur at a distance of a mile from Saidpur and two furlongs and a half from Bharaoti.

(3.) The learned Sessions Judge has rightly held that the evidence in the case is mainly circumstantial. There are witnesses who saw the accused in the vicinity of the field where the body was later found at about the time the murder was committed. There is the statement of Vidya Wati, a girl of about ten, and there are the blood-stained clothes. To these may be added the evidence furnished by the medical examination of the accused. The case lies in a narrow compass, but an attempt to ascertain the truth has met with considerable difficulty created by certain uncommon features. The failure of the accused to produce any defence - whether due to poverty or other-wise - has made no small contribution to that difficulty. Apart from the medical evidence, the evidence of, Mt. Vidya Wati and Malook Singh, the Mukhia of Bharaoti, who sent the report through Inder Bal, the chaukidar, must form the main plank of the prosecution. It is not clear why the Mukhia of Saidpur took practically no interest in the matter. It may be that it fell on Malook as the Mukhia of Bharaoti - the scene of the occurrence - to send the report, but this does not explain the utter indifference of the Mukhia of Saidpur. Malook Singh scribed the first information report which is to be found at page 5 of the paper-book and is in these terms: It is submitted that a girl of mauza Saidpur, aged 12 or 13 years, whose fields are on the boundary line of Bharaoti and who was going back to her village from her field after giving food, was found dead in a juar field. The deceased is the daughter of Ramphal Jat, resident of Saidpur. He had been searching her for 3 or 4 hours. When he found the dead body he came to me and said the body has been found in a juar field and I have identified it as that of my daughter . He also said that she had been raped. Please come to the spot and examine the dead body. I am sending the report through the chaukidar.