K. Jayachandra Reddy, J. - (1.) The appellant Balai Chandra Biswas, who is a Doctor by profession, has been found guilty of an attempt to cause disappearance of evidence by issuing a false certificate regarding the cause of death of Smt. Sabita Banerjee and is accordingly convicted u/Ss. 201 read with 511, I.P.C. and sentenced to undergo one years RI. by the trial Court. The appeal preferred by him was dismissed by the High Court. Hence the present appeal.
(2.) Smt. Sabita Banerjee was the wife of Pronab Banerjee who was living in a rented house at Purulia where he was posted. On 30-6-76 he went to Calcutta where his wife was living who was sick and suffering from chronic illness. She died on 2-7-76. It is alleged that the accused met P.W. 11, as A.S.I. of Police attached to Control Room, Alipore, who was known to him. The accused is alleged to have told P. W. 11 secretly' that his wife had expired during the previous night and requested P.W. 11 to come to his flat after the arrival of the Doctor, namely the accused and to help him in getting a death certificate. P.W. 11 went to the flat of Pronab Banerjee and he felt suspicious about the cause of death of Smt. Sabita Banerjee. However, later the accused also came there as requested and in the presence of P.W. 11, the accused examined her and he just wrote a certificate Ex.P.7 and in that certificate he simply mentioned thus: "This is to certify that Smt. Sabita Banerjee aged about 35 years wife of Sri Pronab Banerjee of Jadavpur Police Quarter, Calcutta-32 expired on 2-7-76. I found her dead, the cause of which I cannot say." There was a commotion in the locality and some people in the locality seemed to have taken interest in the case and the dead body was sent for post-mortem and it was found that the death was due to strangulation. It appears that Pronab Banerejee was tried for the offence of murder and he was convicted. However, we are not concerned with that case.
(3.) The further case of the prosecution is that during the search of the house of Pronab Banerjee the police recovered another certificate marked as Ex, P. 33 which was in the handwriting of the accused and was written on his letter-head and the same reads as follow's: "This is to certify that Smt. Sabita Banerjee wife of Pronab Banerjee of Flat No. 1/2/1, Raja S. C. Mullick Road, Calcutta-32, has been suffering from Schizophrenia with nutrition deficiency. She expired at 3-15 a.m. on this date due to respiratory failure. Her age was about 37 years." It may be mentioned here that the Investigating Officer while searching the house of Pronab Banerjee came across Ex.P. 7 and Ex. P. 33. P.W. 50, a police officer who was a patient of Dr. Biswas and who was familiar with his hand-writing, proved both Ex.P. 7 and Ex.P. 33. There is little dispute that the accused granted Ex.P. 7, the certificate. As there was some dispute about Ex.P. 33, the same was sent to the handwriting expert along with admitted handwriting of the appellant. P.W. 55, an expert opined that both Ex.P. 7 and Ex.P. 33 bore the signatures of the appellant and the same is accepted by both the Courts below.;