EMPEROR Vs. KHUDAY GAZI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this case the two accused persons named Khuday Gazi and Abdul Hadi Sardar were put upon their trial before the Additional Sessions Judge of Khulna with a Jury of seven persons on a charge of murder of one Punti Bibi. It appears that both the accused persona are uriyas, the second accused having become a Muhammadan. It appears that Punti Bibi was a woman who had been married by the first accused Khuday Gazi in nicca form after the death of her first husband. The first husband had left a house and some other property and the occurrence which is alleged to have taken place on the 25 February, 1928, in the middle of the night of Saturday and Sunday took place in the house of the woman.

(2.) The case for the prosecution is that these two accused together with the two witnesses Fatik Sardar and Katar Shaikh were smoking gunja in Punti Bibi's house that they were smoking and singing songs and that Panti Bibi was in another part of the house and did not take any share in these proceedings. Finally she went to sleep in her part of the house with a small child of six years old and the story is that after these men had sung their songs and smoked their gunja for sometime the second accused told these two witnesses, namely, Fatik and Katar that Punti Bibi was to be murdered; and that a certain conversation took place in the course of which he threatened these people to keep quiet otherwise he would murder them. That then the two accused entered the room and Abdul Hadi the second accused pressed the woman's throat and throttled her to death while Khuday Gazi, the husband of the woman held her arms and in this way she was strangled and that these two eye-witnesses ran away immediately after seeing this. There can be no doubt that, the woman came by her death in that place on that night.

(3.) The question is whether the story of these two eye-witnesses is to be believed by itself and whether there is sufficient corroboration either in the conduct of the accused or otherwise to entitle us to say that the verdict of the Jury is unreasonable. It is quite true that the Jury were very nearly divided in their opinions four being in favour of the verdict, of not guilty and three in favour of the verdict of guilty. There can be no doubt that the story told by these eye- witnesses is very improbable in itself. If the four people were smoking gunja and singing songs then it does not seem probable that one of those people should suddenly say that Punti Bibi should be killed, but one cannot criticise this evidence very much because it appears to be a story of what took place when it may very well be that they were still smoking gunja or at any rate were subject to its effects. The story told by these witnesses as to what they had seen does not sound very convincing and it seems a highly improbable story that the husband and the other men should go into the room where Punti Bibi was sleeping in the presence of these two eye-witnesses and should be so easily and successfully able to strangle this woman to death, the small child being in the same room at the time. This is a story which has all the elements which call for a critical investigation.