EMPEROR Vs. SHEO CHANDRA PRASAD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This a reference by the Additional Sessions Judge of Patna, under Section 307, Criminal Procedure Code. The accused before him was Sheo Chandra Prasad a student of the XI or Matriculation Class, aged 18. The charges on which this ac- 3used had been committed to the Court of Session were that on September 4,1936, he had murdered a fellow student Rajjan aged 15 or 16 years by cutting his throat with a sharp knife or razor, that on the night of September 4-5, 1936, he had murdered another fellow student Ramlakhan aged about 20 years by cutting his throat in a similar manner and that at about the same time he had attempted to commit suicide by cutting his own throat. There ware seven jurors and their verdict on the first charge was unanimous one of not guilty; on the second a verdict of not guilty by a majority of 5 to 2 and on the third a verdict of not guilty by a majority of 5 to 2. The learned Judge has referred the case being of opinion that on the first charge the verdict of the jury was not unreasonable, and that on the second and third charges it is contrary to the plain weight and effect of the evidence and should not be supported. The accused and the two deceased students were, according to the evidence, on very friendly terms with each other and used to go about together. On the, evening or late afternoon of September 1, 1936, they were seen all three in conversation together. Later Ramlakhan left the other two who went out together. After this Sheo Chandra returned alone and Rajjan was not again seen alive, his body was found next morning lying in a field with throat cut. That is practically all the material we have in respect of the first charge, namely, that Sheo Chandra was the last person seen in the company of Rajjan before his death and the finding of Rajjan with his throat cut. The doctor who examined the body of Rajjan was of opinion that the injury was homicidal. He has not elaborated his reasons for this view, and the question whether the injuries found on Rajjan could have been suicidal was not definitely put to him. But in the description of the injuries which we get from the medical evidence and the post mortem report, we have not been able to find anything inconsistent with their having been suicidal.

(2.) In Lyon's Medical Jurisprudence for India (Edn. 9th, p. 230 onwards) attention is directed to the methods by which homicidal and suicidal throat-wounds are ordinarily distinguished. It is said that if more than one severe wound is present, the case is usually one of murder; a suicide may make more than one wound but only one of these will be severe. Again, self-inflicted wounds are usually less severe and deep, and inference can sometimes be drawn from the position in which the body is found. It is said that an intending suicide seldom cuts his throat while lying in bed; he usually does so in the erect or sitting position, and on the supervention of unconsciousness, he collapses to the floor and probably turns over on his face. A body stretched out in bed with a wound on the throat suggests murder during sleep; one on its back on the floor makes one think of the possibility of homicide in which more than one person has had a hand; a body, face downwards, is almost certainly of a suicide. The position of the body is not of course an absolute indication of the nature of the case but must be considered along with other circumstances. The body of Rajjan was found lying on its face. There was a single incised wound about 5" x 2" muscle deep on the right side of the neck cutting the trachea, larynx, oesophagus and the right cornea of the hyoid bone, grazing up to the vertebrae and cutting the intervening muscles and the external carotid artery. Everything-here is consistent with the injury which caused death being suicidal.

(3.) Turning to the next charge, the prosecution has rather more circumstantial evidence as to the movements of the accused and the deceased. It is proved by direct evidence that they both went to sleep in the same room, that three other students, Shamdeo, Kapildeo and Debendra were sleeping in the same room, that Debendra was reused about 3 in the morning by something touching his leg and he raised an alarm of thief. This brought to the place the head master with a torch. No one was seen leaving the room and in face of the evidence that the doors were shut, it is difficult to imagine how any outsider could have got in or got out without leaving clear marks of his passage. It is true that the head master in laying his first information framed it as an information of murder against some one unknown, but the facts found as regards the state of the doors seem to me to exclude the possibility of this being the work of any outsider. The theory which the prosecution set up was that Sheo Chandra first cut the throat of Ramlakhan and then his own. Reliance is placed on medical evidence in the course of which the doctor has given his opinion that the injury on Ramlakhan was homicidal and that on Sheo Chandra suicidal. We have considered the descriptions of these injuries in the medical evidence in the light of the observations from Lyon's Medical Jurisprudence, which I have already cited. The inquest report on Ramlakhan Singh shows that his body was found lying flat with face downward on the floor of the room, so also we learn from the Sub-Inspector, was the position of Sheo Chandra himself. The two were lying close together, Ramlakhan besides a skin deep cut on the right middle finger had two incised wounds on the neck, one of these was 1" x 1/4 skin deep, and the other was the severe one which caused his death, i.e. an incised wound 5 x 11/2" muscle deep on the right side of the neck cutting the larynx and trachea laterally muscles and platina of the right side of the neck, and external carotid artery being divided one vertebra was grazed. The description fits exactly with the charcteristics which, according to Lyon are to be found in suicidal injuries, and it is impossible to say that the evidence excludes or indeed renders improbable the view that Ramlakhan may have committed suicide. The third charge is in respect of the accused's own alleged attempt to commit suicide. It is in evidence that he like Ramlakhan was found lying on his face on the floor. The razor was on the floor about one cubit distant from his right hand. There were three injuries on the neck of which two were incised wounds skin deep and the third was an incised wound on the front of the neck about 5" x 11/2" muscle deep cutting the larynx and esophagus and fracturing the cornea of the right hyoid bone. It can hardly be coincidence that these injuries should agree so closely with this observation of Lyon: A suicide may make more than one wound, but only one of these will be severe, the remainder will be tentative cuts made while he was screwing up his determination to the point of making the final fatal wound.