EMPEROR Vs. GAYA NATH DASS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a reference under Section 374 of the Criminal P. C. from the Sessions Judge of Rungpore who has convicted the four accused persons under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and passed the death sentence on the first prisoner Gaya Nath Das and sentences of transportation for life on each of the other three prisoners Matal Das, Shashi Bhusan Das, and Nishi Kanta Chandra. The matter has also come before us on appeal by the accused.

(2.) The Assessors were divided in opinion. One gentleman thought that the deceased Anukul had been murdered, the other Assessor was in favour of the theory that Anukul had died of some disease like apoplexy. The first Assessor gave five weighty reasons for his farther conclusion that the accused were not guilty of the murder of Anukul. These reasons have been examined by the learned Sessions Judge whose judgment is full and exhaustive. We are unable, however, to accept the conclusions at which the learned Sessions Judge has arrived.

(3.) The first question for determination is whether the deceased Anukul died from the effects of strangulation or rather by throttling, or whether he died from natural causes such as apoplexy or epilepsy or the like. The doctor was examined twice, and the impression left on our minds from a careful and attentive perusal of both these depositions is that he was not by any means certain that the deceased had met with his death as the result of violence. He said no doubt that he hardly thought that the indications he found were consistent with any other cause of death but strangulation. But his view was. that death might have been due to throttling, and he was not decidedly of opinion that throttling was the cause of death. In his original report, dated 13 September, he deliberately wrote, "death may have been due to throttling." There were some remarkable injuries on the deceased and among them were a number of scratches on the front part of the neck running downwards. These scratches might have been caused by the nails of the fingers of the deceased either when he was suffering from some fit or other, or when he was endeavouring to release himself from an attack, But if several persons joined in the act of throttling him, and if one of the persons held the deceased's hands, this being the case for the Crown, it is scarcely possible that the nails could have been applied in the manner indicated in the alternative theory.