- (1.) S. K. Agarwal, J. There are 3 connected appeals with Criminal Appeal No. 623 of 1980. Crl. Appeal No. 623 of 1980 was filed by Sita Ram. Criminal Appeal No. 624 of 1980 was filed by Ratan Chand Dubey @ Munna. Crl. Appeal No. 627 of 1980 was filed by Sheeta Prasad and Criminal Appeal No. 628 of 1980 was filed by Krishan Kumar Singh. All these appellants were convicted under Section 302/34 I. P. C. and were sentenced to life imprisonment.
(2.) BRIEF facts of the case as contained in the F. I. R. are that the informant Smt. Shail Kumari was living in Mohalla Khajuri, District Varanasi with her family. In the same locality her sister Smt. Prabhawati with her husband Badri Lal Srivastava and children lived in house No. 58/151. The relations between two families were cordial and they were frequently visiting each other. On the date of occurrence i. e. 4-12- 1978 at about 10. 00 a. m. she went to see her sister. On reaching there she found the main door in the front closed. She pressed the door but it did not open. She thought that her sister may be, in the inner Court yard busy in some house hold. She went to the side lane and from there she called her sister but no response to her call was made from inside. She stood on a heap of debris and tried to peep into the house. She found her sister lying on the floor of the middle room. Sita Ram, holding a knife, was inflicting the injury on her neck. Sheetal was pressing on her chest with one part of the stone grinder. Munna was pressing her legs and Krishan Kumar was pressing her head. She exclaimed "are BAAP RE, GAJAB HO GAYA''. On hearing her exclaim the four, left her sister and turned towards her. She ran and shouted, 'sita Ramva, Sheetalava, Krishnava and Ratan Chandava have killed my sister'. They all jumped from the wall and ran towards Khandahar. She had seen blood on their clothes. Her alarm attracted many people to the spot. She called the daughter Aarti of the deceased to open the door. She found her sister dead. Injuries of knife and a blunt object were there on her person. An Angauchha was also tied around her neck. Her clothes were stained with blood. Several persons came there and told her that they had seen Sita Ram, Sheetal Prasad, Ratan Chand and Krishan Kumar running away from the spot and their clothes were stained with blood. Sita Ram was also holding a blood stained knife. The ran towards police lines. They did not respond to their queries. These persons used to keep an evil eye on the village women. Several complaints were already made against them. She felt that all these 4 persons finding her sister alone in the house, tried to satiate their lust and having failed due to resistance offered they killed her so that they may not be named. The husband of the deceased was informed. The written report Ex. Ka-1 is on the record. It was got prepared by P. W. 1. The case was registered at P. S. Cantt. District Varanasi on 4-12-1978 at about 10. 30 a. m. The distance of the police station is about 2 Kms. from the spot of occurrence. Report was carried to police station by Hira Lal, P. W. 3. It was scribed by her nephew Om Prakash Srivastava alias Kailash. After completion of the inquest, the dead body was dispatched to the mortuary for post-mortem. The post-mortem on her dead body was conducted on 5-12-1978 at about 2. 00 p. m. Her dead body was brought to mortuary by Constables Ramesh Yadav and Dev Narain of P. S. Cantt. Post-mortem was conducted by P. W. 5 Dr. V. Kumar. He found following injuries on her person: (1) Lacerated wound 2 cm. x 1 cm. x skin deep right eye brow. (2) Multiple contusion in an area of 13 cm. x 7 cm. right side face. (3) Contusion 7 cm. x 7 cm. on left eye and cheek. (4) Lacerated wound 7 cm x 3/4 cm. x muscle deep on chin. (5) Punctured wound 1 cm. x 1/2 cm x 6 cm. on the right side neck front middle wound directed below and in. (6) Multiple contusion in an area of 22 cm. x 14 cm. on front of neck and upper part Chest front. (7) Multiple contusions in an area of 32 cm. x 15 cm. on the upper third back both sides. (8) Abraded contusion 2 cm. x 1 1/2 cm. on the back left elbow. (9) Contusion 5 cm. x 2 cm. back right forearm middle. (10) Incised wound 1 1/2 cm. x 1 cm. on the right hand dorsum at the root of right index finger. (11) Multiple contusions in an area of 15 cm. x 11 cm. right knee front. In the post-mortem all the injuries except Injury Nos. 5 and 10 were found of blunt object. Injury Nos. 5 and 10 were caused by sharp edged weapon. Injury No. 5 is a punctured wound on the right side of neck and Injury No. 10 is an incised wound on the right hand at the root of right index finger. The internal damage in the thorax region was extensive. Right thorasic cavity contained 2 liter of blood. Pleura over right upper lobe was punctured. Upper lobe of the right lung was punctured. Stomach contained 1/2 kg. rice and Dal. Small intestine contained digested food and large intestine was found empty. Bladder was also found empty.
(3.) THE defence has denied the prosecution story in its entirety. Sita Ram had stated that he was involved in the offence on account of enmity due to property dispute between him and the informant. He adopted the statement made by his cousin Ratan Chand. Ratan Chand has made a lengthy statement in defence. According to him about 10-12 years ago, his grand-father had sold out some land from his share to Smt. Shail Kumari, the informant. Some part of their land was included in her house by Shail Kumari. When the measurement took place, it was found that she had included some land of theirs in her house in excess of the land sold. Smt. Shail Kumari offered to pay its price. She further asked that rest of the land that fell in his grand-father's share be also given to her. THEy demanded the prevalent market rate but she was pressing for the old rate. THE deceased Prabhawati also told them to sell their land to Smt. Shail Kumari on past rate. When they did not yield, Shail Kumari also threatened to see them. She had neither returned the excess land that she occupied nor paid its price. On account of this enmity she involved him and his brother in this offence. He further stated that his house is adjacent to the house of Prabhawati. On the date of occurrence at about 9. 00-9. 30 a. m. he had gone to get his wrist watch repaired. When he was returning back to his house and was at a distance of 1 furlong, he heard an alarm being raised. He rushed to the spot. Smt. Shail Kumari met him. She asked him to call Badri Lal Srivastava, husband of the deceased. He claimed that he went to call Badri Lal Srivastava at his office at Lahurabir but we did not find him there. He was told there that he has gone to the Bank near Kutchehry. He came back to his house. As soon as he reached near this house, he found S. O. , P. S. Cantt. talking to his father. He took him to the spot where the dog squad was present. An attempt was made to make a dog smell him but that attempt failed. Smt. Shail Kumari repeatedly was, according to him, crying that he is the culprit and involve him some how. THE Dog Squad operator told her when this animal is not sniffing him how can he involve him. THE Inspector. brought him out and on the same day at about 4 p. m. he was taken away by the Sub-Inspector from his house. Krishna Kumar, appellant, gave out in his defence that he was at his house on leave. He is army person and was posted during the period of occurrence in Panchmarhi, Jabalpur. On 5-12-1978, he was going to attend his duty. He was present at the relevant time when the police of P. S. Cantt. came at the railway station. He was sitting in the train after having his warrant for travel prepared. He was called by the Sub-Inspector who enquired from him whether his name is Munna. He told him that his actual name is Krishna Kumar but he was also called as Munna. Sub-Inspector had told him that they want to make some enquiry from him. He told him that he has to attend his duty. He further asked to take him before R. T. O. or Station Master but the police did not agree. They brought him to the police station. There he was told that in this case name of Munna occurred and if he pays Rs. 3,000 he will be let of. He declined to oblige. In the evening, Station Officer asked him to pay only Rs. 2,000 for his release but he declined it also. On 5-12-1978 Smt. Shail Kumari prepared a report on the instruction of S. H. O. and S. I. Rajendra Singh. The report was dictated by him. In the report the date was mentioned as 4-12-1978. On 6-12- 1978 he was sent to Jail. In his locality 8-10 persons are called Munna. He had no enmity with Smt. Shail Kumari and Prabhawati. He was involved with the connivance of the policemen in this offence.;