LALITA DEVI Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant, Lalita Devi has been convicted under Section 201, Penal, Code and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of six years; she was acquitted of the charge of murder under Section 502, Indian Penal Code.

(2.) The prosecution case was that on 3 July 1946 the girl, Bachia, being the daughter of the appellant's sister, was found missing. Her mother, Mombati (p.w. 7) was in search of her and was told on the way that she had gone towards the house of the accused. She thereupon came to accused's house and asked about the whereabouts of her daughter and was told that she had been sent away by the appellant after her hair was dressed and she was given a tica of vermilion on her forehead. Mombati then states that at this time a young girl by name Agni came upon the scene and asserted that Bachia had been killed by the appellant. On this assertion being made, Mombati (P.W. 7) wanted to search the appellant's house and the appellant bolted the door from inside, and while Mombati attempted to scale over the compound wall in order to reach the appellant's room, she was struck with a lathi and brickbats. Later, a large number of villagers including Mombati's husband, Geno Singh and her father-in-law, Kanhai Singh arrived. They sent for Bajo Singh, the appellant's husband, on whose arrival and at whose orders the door was opened by the appellant. Thereupon a search was made and the corpse of the deceased Bachia was recovered. It was found that the child had been cut at her throat just below the adam's apple, the cut extending more to the right with a deep wound than to the left.-Kanhai Singh went to the police station and lodged the first information report. The police after due formalities submitted charge-sheet against the appellant. The enquiring Magistrate committed her to the Court of Session with a charge under Section 201. The learned Sessions Judge added the charge of Section 302 but ultimately acquitted her of that charge.

(3.) The appellant and her husband, Bajo Singh, are the only inmates of their house which consists of rooms situated in a row running from east to west. There is a courtyard in the front of the rooms which is surrounded by compound walls on the east, north and west. On the eastern compound wall there is a door which, it, is said, was bolted from inside against Mombati, the mother of the deceased girl. The corpse was found from a narrow space between the granary and the wall of the easternmost room. It was covered over with some straw of paddy. There was also found near about the body a dirty piece of white blood stained cloth, a blood stained pahusal (sickle) and skin of palm tree also containing blood stains. It is also stated that the Sub-Inspector found some blood stains on the floor of one of the middle rooms adjoining the easternmost room. He scraped the earth and had sent them along with the sickle, the blood-stained straw, the white blood-stained cloth and the skin of the palm tree to the Chemical Examiner who found human blood in all except the sickle and the scraped earth.