KARMA URANG Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant in this case has been tried for the murder of his father on the 12th December 1926 in the morning before 8 o clock. He has been convicted and sentenced to transportation for life and the real question in this appeal is whether or not he ought to be dealt with under the provisions of the law which apply to a person who, at the time of doing the act, by reason of un-soundness of mind, was incapable of knowing the nature of the act, or that he was doing what was either wrong or contrary to law. That is the test laid down by Section 84, I.P.C.

(2.) The story is a most extraordinary one. The appellant, his brother and his father were living together and the appellant and his father have been proved to have been on the best of terms. The brother's story is that on the morning in question when he woke up his father and his brother had gone out and it seems clear that soon after leaving the house the appellant with a dao cut off his father's head. He thereupon picked up the head wrapped it in something and was proceeding along the road to Silchar Court. He was seen by witness Saiyad Ali about the time he had passed the thana. Saiyad Ali having gone and reported to the thana what he had seen, constables overtook the accused who was walking quite in an ordinary way and persuaded him quietly to come back to the thana and to tell his story to the Assistant Sub- Inspector. The story he told was that he had a dream and that in that dream goddess Kali appeared to him and told him that either he would have to kill his father or his father would kill him. It would seem that this dream contained other elements; in particular, it contained the element that his father was a descendant of the goddess Kali and also that his father's tongue was black and that he was to take the head to the Court at Silchar.

(3.) When the story was first told to the Assistant Sub-Inspector the appellant was taken back to the house. He was taken to the threshing ground where his father's body lay, and the tea garden doctor who has given evidence saw him on that occasion. The accused told him that the previous night he had dreamt that if he did not kill his father his father would kill him. He said that Kali told him so in his dream. Kali said to him that his father's tongue was black and that his father was a descendent of the goddess Kali. He told me that his father would have killed him and so he killed his father. He told me that he dreamt that he had taken the head of his father to Silchar Court. He said that when he was bringing the head to Silchar he was stopped on the way and could not bring it. He said that his dream could not be realized as he could not take the head to Silchar. He told me this at the threshing floor. He was excited and his eyes were blood shot.