DEBENDRA NARAYAN CHAKRAVARTY Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this case the accused man was put on his trial before the learned Sessions Jndge of Murshidabad and a jury of five upon a charge that about midday on 14 April 1928, he committed culpable homicide by killing his wife. The wife's name was Kiranbala and it would appear that she was a mere girl of some 15 years of age. She had been married to the accused since about 1924.

(2.) Now the evidence on the part of the prosecution consists first of all of a considerable amount of evidence to the effect that the accused used from time to time to ill-treat his wife. There is a certain amount of evidence but not of a character which can be said to be in any way substantial to the effect that the accused man was carrying on an intrigue with the widow of an uncle who lived next door and that this might have had something to do with the animosity between the husband and the wife. There is some further evidence as to which it is a matter of opinion whether it is substantial or not to the effect that this girl may have been acting imprudently if not carrying on an intrigue with the witness Srikrishna. But the evidence which matters and which may be regarded as the evidence upon which the prosecution sought to bring the charge home to the accused is, in the first place, the evidence of some 4 or 5 witnesses who say that in the middle of the day on the 14 April as they passed near by to the accused's hut they heard his wife crying out for help saying that she was about to be killed, and one witness at least speaks to words of threat and intention to kill on the part of the accused man. Sometime afterwards it appears that the accused is seen by certain witnesses going on to the top of his kitchen with an instrument what has been called a crowbar and breaking down a part of the wall. When the accused man makes up his mind to call in persons from outside the body of the wife is discovered lying on the floor with certain parts of the earthen wall lying round about her and certain parts lying, on her body, and the story that is given out by the husband is this that he was away from the house in the morning but that when he came back in the afternoon he found this state of affairs, and his. suggestion was that he knew nothing as to what occurred and that it would appear that a part of this wall had fallen down upon the girl and she had met her death while cooking in that room. It would appear further that a few days before the occurrence a fire in the thatch of this house had taken place and it is suggested that the damage done at that time may have accounted for the collapse of this earthen wall.

(3.) The condition of the body of the girl and the clods make it extremely difficult to suppose that any such accident happened as that the wall collapsed on the top of the girl and killed her. It appears that only a small portion of the wall collapsed at all. In addition to that there is the evidence of witnesses who say that the man was seen breaking down a part of the wall with a crowbar. One clod at least was produced in Court and the learned Judge was satisfied that it showed marks that it had been forced off by a crowbar. If, therefore, the question in this case was--whether or not the accused man has shown that this girl had met her death by the wall falling on the top of her--there would be very little doubt of the finding which is against him.