- (1.)THIS is a Government Appeal directed against an order of acquittal passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge. Kanpur on 30th April, 1963.
(2.)CHAUDHRY Laiq Singh, his wife Sm. Ram Maya, his driver Kishun Chand and his three relations, namely, Gajendrapal Singh, Bimal Kumar and Tej Bahadur, we committed to the Court of Session, Kanpur, to stand their trial for having committed offences punishable under Sections 365/364 read with Section 149 I. P. C. All of them except Gajendrapal Singh (respondent) were further charged under Sections 147, 357/149 and 325/149 I. P. C. There was also an alternative charge against them for offences punishable under the aforesaid sections read with Section 34 I. P. C. All the respondents except Gajendrapal Singh were further charged under Section 342/34 I. P. C. The learned Additional Sessions Judge has acquitted all the respondents of all the offences with which they were charged.
(3.)THE person in respect of whom all the offences mentioned in the charge were alleged to have been committed is Sashikala (P. W. 1), aged about 24 or 25 years at the time of the trial. She is a relation of Chaudhry Laiq Singh (respondent ). Her father's sister's daughter is married to Suraj Kumar, a younger brother of Laiq Singh. According to that relationship Shashikala was Laiq Singh's younger brother's wife's cousin in other words a sister-in-law. There was also another relationship between Laiq Singh (respondent) and Shashikala (P. W. 1 ). Laiq Singh's elder brother Nihal Singh was married to the elder sister of Shashikala's brother's wife. The father of Shashikala was a resident of village Jori, district Hazari Bagh, Bihar. Shashikala's mother belonged to village Harganpur, which is at a distance of about five miles from Shikohabad in district Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh. She had inherited some landed property from her parents. After the death of her husband she started living in Shikohabad to look after her property in village Harganpur. She lived at Shikohabad. Chaudhry Laiq Singh, who belonged to her own community and was a rich and influential member of that community, helped her in the management of her property. The brother of Shashikala lived in village Jori to look after his property in the village. In the year 1954 Bhupendra Singh, the brother of Shashikala, took the help of Laiq Singh in getting the family property partitioned by means of arbitration. Laiq Singh (appellant) was, therefore, related and known to the mother and the brother of Km, Shashikala from before the year 1955.