EMPEROR Vs. ITWA MUNDA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a reference under Section 374, Criminal P.C. together with the appeal of Etwa Munda who has been convicted of murder by the Judicial Commissioner of Ranchi and sentenced to death. The events which led up to the death of the victim, a woman named Karmi Urain, are very clear and, in my opinion, this appeal can be decided on the facts without any difficulty.

(2.) Karmi was a widow and lived with her son Dhuma in a village called Satranji within the thana of Ranchi. On a Sunday, 23 May, the woman left home telling her son that she was going to visit her cousin in a village about three miles south of Satranji. She went off and did not return and after a few days her son became anxious and informed the village chaukidar, and the matter was reported to the Ranchi police.

(3.) During the course of the days immediately following her disappearance the body was found at a place called Deuri which is some 17 or 18 miles to the southward of village Satranji, the place being approachable by a road which runs southward from village Satranji passing through a village called Lodma and later on the thana head quarters at Karra. The body was found partially devoured by vultures, the fleshy portions being mostly removed. The frontal bone of the skull had disappeared, and on the right parietal bone was an extensive depressed fracture which could only have been caused by violence; and the disappearance of the frontal bone leads to the conclusion that that also had received severe injuries and had been broken,, otherwise it would not have been possible for the vultures to remove the frontal bone from the parietal bone forming as it does a strut or an arch between the two.