KARAN SINGH Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Four men, Karan Singh, Bahadur, Mulaem Singh and. Puran have been convicted under Section 302 for the murder of Gajraj. Karan Singh and Bahadur have been sentenced to death. Mulaem Singh and Puran have been sentenced to transportation for life on the ground that they did not take a principal part in committing the murder. In View of the opinion that we have formed about this case, it is unnecessary to say more in regard to the question of sentence than this, that we cannot find the smallest justification for the Sessions Judge sentencing Mulaem Singh and Puran only to transportation for life if there is in fact truth in the story for the prosecution which the learned Judge has believed.

(2.) According to that story Mulaem and Puran held Gajraj while Bahadur and Karan forced the life out of him by placing their lathis on his neck. In view of this story, which the learned Judge accepted, it is inconceivable to us how he could justify a view that the two men did not take a principal part in the murder. The story for the prosecution is that Karan Singh hated Gajraj because Gajraj had been one of these responsible, though not tried, for kidnapping Karan Singh's wife about a year before the present murder. Gajraj is also said to have had enmity with one of the other appellants, Bahadur, on account of their both having an intrigue with the same woman Mt. Bitauli. On the night of the 30 March Karan Singh is said to have persuaded Gajraj to accompany him with a view to beating Bahadur and to have taken Gajraj to his (Karan Singh s) house under this pretext, where the other three appellants were already concealed. Omitting some minor incidents which followed, the four appellants are then said to have murdered Gajraj by pressing a lathi on his neck, to have taken away the corpse and have hidden it in the jungle and to have subsequently, one, or the other of them, largely destroyed the corpse by burning it.

(3.) Gajraj had four brothers, Munshi, Mahadeo, Nawab and Piare. Mahadeo lived with Gajraj in the village Barehla where also Karan Singh, Mulaem and Puran lived. The fourth appellant, Bahadur, Jived in another village, but had been working in a bel in the village Barehla for several months. The other three brothers of Gajraj, Munshi, Nawab and Piare lived about two kos away from Barehla in the village Mundia Bais. Mahadeo is said to have been ill and, therefore, took no steps when he found that his brother did not return. How far this alleged illness is a real fact is at the least uncertain, because Mahadeo was himself well enough a few days later to go to the place where the body was eventually found. However, Mahadeo says that he sent his son to fetch his brother Piare, who also had been named in the report of the kidnapping case above mentioned. Piare says that he searched for his brother Gajraj in certain villages where Karan Singh said Gajraj might be, but failed to find him and, failing to find him three days later again questioned Karan Singh and as a result of his suspicions got Karan Singh arrested by the mukhia and others and took him to the police station. On the way to the police station they were told that the body of Gajraj had been found burnt in the jungle.