- (1.)This judgment shall govern disposal of death reference and criminal appeal as they arise from the judgment dated 3-2-2011 passed by the Sessions Judge, Sehore,
in S.T. No.d 5/2010, whereby Maganlal (hereinafter referred to as the 'appellant') was cenvicted and sentenced as under :-
JUDGEMENT_364_MPHT5_2011_1.html
(2.)The appellant is the father of Jamuna, Leela, Aarta, Savita and Phool Kunwar who, at the time of their untimely deaths, were aged about 1 year, 3 years, 4 years, 5 years and 6 years. Amongst these, Jamuna, Leela & Savita were born through his second wife namely Basanti (P.W. 1) while he got the other two from his first wife viz., Santo (P.W. 2), the cousin of Basanti. Appellant's children also include three sons; Shriram from Basanti and Ajay & Vijay from Santo. He was tried not only for committing murders of all the five daughters but also for making an attempt to commit suicide.
(3.)Prosecution case may briefly be stated thus :-
(i) At the relevant point of time, the appellant was residing in a one-room house situated on forest-land in Village Kaneria along with his wives and children. His elder brother Chhagan and younger brothers Jagan (P.W. 3) and Agan (P.W. 8) were also living in the same vicinity but indifferent houses constructed on the forest-land only.

(ii) During the period of nearly a month preceding the incident in question, the appellant proposed to sell his land-in favour of one Ramlai, a co-villager. However, his wives as well as brothers were opposed to the proposal. They persuaded him not to sell the land saying that 'how

would he maintain the children after doing so, Against this backdrop the appellant being annoyed with attitutde of his wives and brothers Uki not take meals in the night intervening 10th and 1 Ith of June 201o' On the following morning, he again refused to eat food and started moving around carrying an axa However ignoring displeasure, Basanti and Santo went to agricultural field located behind their house to pick up pieces of stones, leaving all the children playing in the house of Agan.

(iii) On 11-6-2010, at about 5 p.m., the appellant called on his daughters to return home. As the girls including Jamuna, who was being carried by Phool Kunwar in her lap, entered into the house, the appellant closed , the door from inside and exterminated each one of them by cutting their throats with the axe after causing the same to be placed on a wooden plank.

(iv) Hearing alarms, Basanti and Santo rushed to the house; peeped thereinto through the closed door and found that all the five daughters, stained with blood, were lying dead and the appellant, wearing only a pant, was also present there with axe in his hand. Basanti immediately shouted to Agan and Jagan that the appellant had cut down the girls but before their arrival at the scene, the appellant opened the door and attempted to kill Basanti and Santo, who were able to run away. At this point of time, the appellant climbed over nearby Teak Tree and tried to hang himself by tying a rope around his neck. Agan and Jagan immediately aborted appellant's attempt to commit suicide by climbing over the tree and bringing him down after cutting the rope. They then tied up the appellant with a rope to the tree.

(v) Again (P.W. 8) informed Radheshyam (C.W. 1), the husband of Sarpanch about the incident. Radheshyam, in turn, apprised V.K. Jain (P.W. 9), the then SI 10 of P.S. Ichhawar accordingly on cell-phone. After recording the corresponding information at Serial No. 705 of the Roznamcha (Bxhs. 32-C and D-2). V.K. Jain immediately proceeded to the spot where he scribed Dehati Nalishi (Hxh. P-1) upon information given by Basanti (P.W. 1).

(vi) After inquest proceedings, dead bodies were sent for post-mortem examinations, that was conducted by Dr. B.B. Sharma (P.W. 4). He opined that common cause of deaths was shock due to excessive haemorrhage. The medical expert also preserved blood-stained clothes worn by each one of the deceased for forensic examination.

(vii) During investigation, SHO, V.K. Jain (P.W. 9) inspected the spot and seized the following articles therefrom :-

(a) ordinary soil,

(b) blood-stained soil,

(c) piece of wood,

(d) rope in four pieces,

(e) blood-stained axe.

He also seized blood-stained pant worn by the appellant at the place of occurrence only. The appellant was subjected to medical examination. All the seized articles were forwarded to Regional FSL, Bhopal for forensic examination. The corresponding report (Exh. P-40) indicated that except the ordinary soil, all the articles contained human blood and also that blood found on the frock and underwear of Phool Kunwar and on appellant's pant was of the same group, i.e., AB.