MIRZA ZAHID BEG Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The three appellants in this appeal are Zahid Beg, Man Khan and Dwarka. Zahid Beg has been sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for a period of 8 years under Section 304, I.P.C., for the offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and to rigorous imprison. merit for a period of 2 2/1 years under Section 201, I.P.C., for attempting to destroy evidence of this offence. The other two appellants have each been sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for a period of two years under 201, I.P.C. Zahid Beg was the Sub-Inspector in charge of the police station at Jaitpur in the district of Agra. A double murder was committed at Naugawan about eight miles from Jaitpur on 16 or 17 June 1936. On 17th June, sometime about 6 or 7 P.M., Ajudhi, chaukidar, went to Jaitpur to report this occurrence. It is agreed that the appellant Zahid Beg was not present at the police station at the time. His own story is that he had been away from the 15 and did not return till 20 June. According to the prosecution he returned to the police station at about 9 o clock that evening. It is alleged that he had given instructions to the clerk that reports of serious offences should not be recorded in his absence if there was a likelihood of his returning to the police station within a reasonable time. In compliance with these instructions, the clerk detained Ajudhi, chaukidar, till Zahid Beg's return.

(2.) The story put forward by the prosecution is that Zahid Beg questioned the chaukidar about the double murder and got angry with him because he thought that he was concealing facts of which he must have knowledge. It is said that Zahid Beg slapped and thumped Ajudhi and knooked him down. After that he dictated a draft report to the clerk and the clerk took the draft report into the police station and copied it out on the proper form. The clerk took Ajudhi with him into the police station. When the report had been completed, a copy was given to Ajudhi and he was told to take it back to Naugawan where one of the head constables had already gone. When Ajudhi came out of the police station with the report, the Sub-Inspector called to him, caught him by the arm and took him in side his private quarters. The prosecution allege that the Sub-Inspector killed Ajudhi in the house although there is no direct evidence on the point.

(3.) The other part of the story deals with the disposal of the body. Dwarka was Zahid Beg's syce. It is alleged that Zahid Beg sent him to fetch Man Khan from a hamlet a mile or so away at midnight and; when Dwarka and Man Khan returned to the house, induced them to take away Ajudhi's body tied up in a bundle and to throw it into a ravine some distance away from Jaitpur. The body was recovered a couple of days later in an advanced stage of decomposition. It was identified by the clothes, i.e. the chaukidar's uniform and by some papers which were found upon it. The doctor who made the post mortem examination found that there was a fracture seven inches long on the right side of the skull with a depression a little larger than the size of a silver eight-anna piece in the centre. The doctor said that the contents of the chest and the abdomen were missing and so were the covering of the chest and the abdominal wall. The left leg and the lower jaw ware also missing. The doctor in his examination-in-chief said that the man appeared to have been killed by a heavy lathi blow on the head and most of his body devoured by wild beasts. At a later stage, he said that he could not say whether the head injury was caused before or after death and admitted that death might have been due to some internal injury.