NARAIN SAHI Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant, Narain Sahi, aged 28, has been convicted of the murder of his wife, Mt. Chinta Kumari, aged 29, and his son, Kamdeb, aged 2, by the learned Additional Sessions Judge of Dumka, and sentenced to transportation for life.

(2.) The facts of the case as disclosed by the evidence are as follows:

(3.) The appellant is the son of Begru Sahi (P.W. 3). Begru Sahi and his three brothers, Nandlal Sahi, Karu Sahi and Meghlal Sahi (P.W. 2) live with their respective families in the same house at Paljori, police station Madhupur, in the Deoghar Sub-division of Dumka District. On the west of the inner angan of this house there is a closed verandah in front of a room where the appellant lived with his family, and another verandah in front of the kitchen, which lies to the south of the inner angan. The appellant had always lived upon cordial terms with his wife who was a woman of good moral character, and he was stated to have been very fond of his young son. Shortly before 9-30 on 11-10-1944, the appellant and his wife were having their breakfast in the southern verandah, when Ramrachha Sahi, aged 14, son of Kara Sahi and, therefore, a first cousin of the appellant, came home from a school for his breakfast. Ramrachha Sahi heard an altercation going on between the appellant and his wife about some money for which the appellant had asked his wife to enable him to go to his maternal uncle's house at Binjhi Pipra. Following this altercation, the appellant came out of the southern verandah, went to his own room on the west of the angan and came out with an axe. Ramrachha asked him where he was going with the axe. The appellant threatened him if he interfered and returned to the southern osara, the door of which he closed from the inside. In answer to very leading questions in cross-examination Ramrachha said that at that time the appellant looked like a mad man and that his eyes were red. Ramrachha then heard cries from the appellant's wife and ran out towards a pond where his aunt, Mt. Nunumani wife of Ramcharan Sahi (P.W. 20), and Mt. Janki (P.W. 5) the wife of Badri Sahi (P.W. 6), a son of Nandlal Sahi, had gone to bathe. Nunumani and Janfei, who were returning from the pond, heard Ramrachha's outcry. All three of them then saw the appellant running away from the house towards the east. They went to the verandah of the southern room, which was then open, and saw the appellant's wife and son lying dead in a pool of blood with injuries on their persons, and an axe lying on the floor. Ramrachha Sahi's two younger brothers, Ramcharan and Ramsaran, returned from school on hearing his outcry and he then sent them to village Behron, about half a mile south of village Paljori, to fetch their father Meghlal Sahi. Meghlal Sahi returned with his brother Karu and he and Karu both saw the two dead bodies and the axe- lying near-by. Meghlal Sahi then went to village Kapsa, about half a mile east of his village, to search for the appellant. He did not find him, and from there he went to Madhupur police station, eight miles distance, and lodged a first information at 4.30 A.M. In the fird-beyan Meghlal Sahi gave the hearsay account of the occurrence, which had been given to him by his son Ramrachha, and added: "The motive for the murder is nothing except that the mind of Narain sometimes used to become affected and deranged." At about 10 A.M. Tilakdhari Sahi (P.W. 14) and Amir Sahi (P.W. 15) were sitting at Tilakdhari's shop at Kapsa, half a mile east of the village Paljori, and saw the appellant walking fast towards the east, though from his gait Tilakdhari did not suspect that anything untoward had occurred.