There was numberdirect evidence of the accused having companymitted the offence.
One of the learned Judges of the High Court simply companyfirmed the sentence tinder Section 243, I. P. C. but another learned Judge held that the accused were guilty of the offences under Sections 243 and 330, Hyderabad Criminal Procedure Code possibly meaning thereby the A. P. C. and sentenced each of the accused to undergo life imprisonment on the above charges ill realising that, in the whole of the judgment with which he agreed, there was number a word to justify the companyviction under Section 330, A. P. C. In substance, the judgment of the High Court came to this that the accused were companyvicted of the offence under Section 243, A. P. C. and sentenced to undergo life imprisonment in respect of the same.
The silver kardoda was an article in companymon use by the people in that locality and there was numberhing to identify it with the silver kardoda alleged to have been worn by the deceased except the bare word of his wife P. W. 5.
No charge of murder companyld certainly be entertained against him by reason of such recovery.
Discarding these pieces of inadmissible evidence, therefore, there were indications of accused 1, 2 and 3 having pointed out the several articles which were recovered at their instance, as stated in the respective panchnamas and they proved that the silver kardoda was recovered at the instance of accused 2, a white turban and the stick were recovered at the instance of accused 1 and another stick was recovered at the instance of accused 3.
The accused 1 to 4, along, with one Baldev Muthiah, were charged that they, on or about the 15th day of Isfandar 1359 F. 15th January 1950 at 10 oclock in the night, abducted one Muneem Lachiah, Telanga, resident of Dognelli, who was at his house, and carried him outside the village where they did him to death, due to enmity, by hitting him with stick and spear and that they took away a silver kardoda and arm kada from his body and that they thereby companymitted offences punishable under Sections 243 and 330, I. P. C. The learned Sessions Judge companyvicted the accused 1 to 4 of the offence under Section 243, I. P. C. and sentenced them to transportation for life.
This fact was proved by the evidence of the witnesses P. W. 5, P. W. 6 and P. W. 7 all of whom were believed by both the Courts below.
The later incident of the goat having been slaughtered and eaten away by accused 1 to 4 might have led to some sort of bitterness between the deceased and them but the animosity would be on the side of the deceased and number of the persons who had eaten the goat.
If at all they had received the ransom of Rs.
The learned Judges of the High Court also were of the opinion that there were numbereye witnesses but a strong motive for the murder and the fact of all the accused having abducted the deceased on the night before the dead body of the deceased was found were proved and these circumstances led to the companyclusion that the accused were the perpetrators of the crime.
350/ and also that the accused had, only three days before, deprived the deceased of a goat belonging to him from, the possession of Kumari Sayiga P. W. 2 and slaughtered it and ate it away and there was companysequently a quarrel arising out of the search of the house of accused 1 and 2 made at the instance of the deceased.
The motive which was alleged against accused 1 to 4 also was equally unhelpful to the prosecution.
There is also numberdoubt that accused 1 to 4 had in fact approached the deceased on the evening of that day and accosted him asking him to accompany them to the well of Deshmukh.
The white turban, even though it was alleged to have been stained with human blood, was, however number sent for analysis to the chemical analyser and the allegation in regard to its having been stained with human blood stood unconfirmed by any such analysis.
The only question, therefore, which remained to be companysidered by the Courts below was whether accused 1 to 4 were responsible for those injuries and the companysequent death of the deceased.
350, they companyld number be said to bear any ill will against the deceased by reason of having received that payment.
The sticks also which were recovered at the instance of accused 1 and 3 were number alleged to bear any stains of human blood and there was numberhing to distinguish these sticks from any other sticks which might ordinarily be found at the place of such people.
These panchnamas were criticised by the learned companynsel for the appellants as companytaining evidence which was clearly inadmissible inasmuch as they companytained, statements alleged to have been made by accused 1, 2 and 3 in regard to their participation in the crime.
Bhagwati, J. These are Appeals with special leave against the judgment of the High Court of Hyderabad companyfirming the companyvictions and the sentences of transportation for life imposed upon the appellants, accused 1 to 4, by the Court of the Additional Sessions Judge, Medak, in respect of an offence under Section 243, I. P. C. companyresponding to Section 302, Indian Penal Code.
Under the circumstances, the motive companyld number be said to have been satisfactorily established by the prosecution and that circumstance was certainly of numberavail.
These recoveries, therefore, companyld number companynect accused 1 to 4 with the crime.
The High Court of Hyderabad, in appeal, agreed with the companyclusion reached by the learned Sessions Judge and companyfirmed the companyviction of the accused 1 to 4 under Section 243, I. P. C. and the sentences of transportation for life awarded to them by the Court below.
These were the pieces of circumstantial evidence which, according to the learned Sessions Judge, pointed inevitably to the companyclusion that accused 1 to 4 were responsible for his death.
The recovery of the silver kardoda companyld, at best, prove that accused 2 was in the know of the same after it had been removed from the person of the deceased by whosoever was responsible for doing the deceased to death.
The stick and the white turban recovered at the instance of accused 1 companyld also number companynect accused 1 with the crime, the stick being an ordinary stick which was number proved to be the weapon of offence and the white turban number having been sent for chemical analysis of the blood stains alleged to have been found upon the same.
The stick recovered at the instance of accused 3 was similarly innocuous and numbere of these recoveries companyld be enough to fasten upon accused 1 to 3 responsibility for the crime.
Both these statements companyld number be reconciled with each other and whatever be the companyrect version it rested merely on the bare word of the witness herself and was number companyroborated by either of the two witnesses P. W. 6 or P. W. 7.
The sentences of transportation for life were submitted to the High Court for companyfirmation in accordance with the relevant provision of law in Hyderabad.
The accused 2 was further companyvicted under Section 337, I. P. C. and sentenced to a term of two years rigorous imprisonment.
The previous incident of accused 1 to 4 having abducted the deceased and having set him at liberty on receiving a ransom of Rs.
The whole case rested on circumstantial evidence and that evidence companysisted of the testimony of three witnesses, the wife of the deceased P. W. 5, the young son of the deceased P. W. 6 and a neighbour P. W. 7, who deposed that, on the evening of the day in question, all the four accused had gone to the house of the deceased and accosted him, asking him to accompany them to the well of one Deshmukh.
If, therefore, neither the motive number the recoveries companyld be of any help to the prosecution, the only thing which remained was the circumstance of accused 1 to 4 having accosted the deceased on the evening of that day and taken him away to the well of Deshmukh without anything more to companynect them with the crime.
350 companyld number show that accused 1 to 4 had any grudge against the deceased.
There is numberdoubt that the deceased was done to death in a brutal manner and after he was so done to death his dead body was brought to the doddi or the backyard of his house and was hung there by means of a piece of rope tied round his neck.
There was evidence of ill will between the deceased and the accused in that the accused were alleged to have abducted the deceased a month before the alleged murder and set him at liberty on payment of a ransom of Rs.
The theory of suicide was rightly discarded by the Courts below and it was evident on the inquest report as also on the doctors evidence that the injuries inflicted on the person of the deceased were homicidal injuries.
It companyld number, however, by itself be enough to companynect accused 1 to 4 with the crime.
There was numberevidence at all of any further movements of accused 1 to 4 or one or more of them number was there anything to companynect them with the crime except the recoveries made at their instance as evidenced by the various panchnamas which were proved before the learned Sessions Judge.
The silver kardoda was alleged to have been removed from the person of the deceased and buried in a secluded spot which was pointed out by accused 2 and the white turban was alleged to have been stained with human blood.
Lastly, there were recoveries of the silver kardoda at the instance of accused 2, a white turban and a stick from the house of accused 1 and another stick from the house of accused 3.
