MANOHAR SINGH Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant Manohar, an Ahir, aged from 30 to 35 years, was sentenced to death by the learned Sessions Judge of Etah under Section 302, Indian Penal Code, for the murder of a widow named Mt. Ram Devi, aged about 42, between 1 and 7th May 1944. The Sessions Judge has referred the case for confirmation of the sentence.

(2.) The appellant and this woman lived in a village called Dhipa in the Aliganj police circle of the Etah district. She had been the wife of one Sardar, uncle of Manohar. Sardar had died about 18 years ago and since then she had apparently been living alone, or with her son Nathu, until he left for Ahmedabad a few years before her murder. The body of Mfc. Ram Devi (who was also called Pujia) was found in a well of Nagla Mohan, a village one or two miles-distant from Dhipa, in the afternoon of 7 May. Its discovery was reported to the Aliganj police the same evening by villagers of Nagia Mohan. The body was taken out by the Station Officer the next morning. He sent for people from surrounding villages and it was identified as the body of Mt.(Ram Devi. It was in a highly decomposed condition but there is no reason to think that it could not be identified. There has been no suggestion of any doubt as to its identity. The Civil Surgeon of Etah performed the post-mortem examination in the afternoon of 9 May. He could find no marks of injury on the body and owing to advanced decomposition he could give no opinion about the cause of death. He found the tongue protruding and pressed between the teeth and the Sessions Judge has referred to this as one of the signs of strangulation. It happened that Mt. Ram Devi had sent reports to the District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police on 10 and 12 April respectively (Exs. P5 and vi) in which, she alleged that Manohar and his relatives had threatened to kill her. There had been a police inquiry by a head constable named Mohammad Yasin, who gave evidence as a prosecution witness. His report of 22 April, (Ex. P6) fully supported her allegations. Ho said that these persons were deadly against her , that her life was in danger and that it was quite possible that they might take her life on some occasion. Ho advised action under Section 107, Criminal P.C. This report was put up before the Court concerned and notice was issued on 4 May to the appellant, his brother Dhan Singh and his father Angnu requiring them to attend and show cause why they should not be required to give security for their good behaviour. By that time, however, in all probability the woman was dead.

(3.) The investigation was taken over from the original station officer of Aliganj by another Sub-Inspector on 9 May. He arrested the appellant on 10 May and made a report for his statement to be recorded. The appellant was despatched to Etah on nth, arriving there on the 12 (communications in the Etah district being poor and there being no railway at the town of Etah). The report was placed before Mr. Mobin, a First Class Magistrate, on the 12th. He was informed that the appellant had been sent to jail. The Magistrate went to the jail on the morning of the 13 and told him to think the matter over, saying that he would come again later in the day and take down such statement as he wanted to make. The Magistrate returned to the jail later in the day and after satisfying himself by questioning the appellant that he was making a voluntary statement he recorded what is in effect a full confession of the crime (Ex. P-12).