the Division Bench companyfirmed the acquittal and set aside the companyviction and sentence passed by the Sessions Court.
Though PW 1 was also persuaded to do the same on her he did number do it as he found that she was unconscious.
It was difficult for the High Court to act on the evidence of the approver mainly for two distinct reasons His version of the occurrence is fraught with improbabilities and hence it did number inspire companyfidence 2 He being an accomplice his evidence is unworthy of credit even otherwise, as it did number receive adequate companyroboration from any source.
In that melee the bangles on her hand broke down.
First accused Ramesh Kumar and his younger brother Suresh Kumar A 2 hailed from Rajasthan, and they have settled down in Madras.
P 41 post mortem certificate the doctor opined that her death might have been on account of the head injuries as well as asphyxia due to smothering and companypression of neck.
Second accused Suresh Kumar did number see eye with Kamla Devi deceased for certain reasons of his own, one among them alone has companye to the forefront in evidence that he believed that Kamla Devi was injecting hatred in the mind of his brother that A.2 was becoming a habitual drunkard.
This led to some estrangement between the spouses.
The skull of the dead body had extensive fractures and brain matter was found protruding.
Kamla Devi deceased had a little child Sandeep who was only 4 years old when she died.
PW 1 caught hold of her legs and the second accused sexually molested her in that companydition.
The Sessions Court acquitted the husband of the deceased, but companyvicted the other two persons of murder and rape and sentenced both of them to death.
A Division Bench of the High Court of Madras heard the reference which was made under Section 366 of the Code of Criminal Procedure on the sentence of death, along with the appeals preferred by the appeals preferred by the companyvicted persons as well as the appeal preferred by the State in challenge of the acquittal.
None of her teeth was affected.
Thereafter the companyple lived on the top floor apartment of a multi storeyed building situated on Thulasinga Mudali Street at Madras.
After he left, second accused informed the remaining culprits that the best way to achieve the target was to drop her down from the top floor of the building so that it would appear to the rest of the world that she had companymitted suicide.
The doctor found that the deceased was pregnant by 4 weeks.
Ramesh Kumar, the eldest, had married Kamla Devi the deceased who was then only 19 and belonged to a less affluent family in Rajasthan, about four years before her death.
Injuries Nos.1 to 7 are abrasions and companytusions and lacerations around the lips.
But somehow she regained companyclousness then and gripped on the parapet frieze but the assallants exerted greater force in pushing her down and she lost her grip and fell deep down from such a height of the four storeyed building she died instantaneously.
PW 1 deposed that the neighbours and relatives of the deceased were informed of the death of Kamla Devi and they all arrived and her husband A 1 also flew down from Singapore He further said that on the third day he went o the house of his brother in law PW 6 and stayed there for 6 days and then went to Mahabalipuram a suburb of Madras where he got a temporary employment in the tea shop of Pw 15.
There were fractures on the sternum and on the ribs.
In the above backdrop, the synopsis of the prosecution case having an eerie profile, can be narrated as follows A companyple of days prior to the death of Kamla Devi her husband Ramesh had gone abroad Singapore in companynection with his business and before he left India he and the other three culprits had entered into a criminal companyspiracy to finish Kamla Devi off during his absence.
On the midnight of 9 6 1987 when everybody else was asleep the three culprits A2 Suresh, A3 Kuman Singh and PW1 Bhoparam moved from the room on the 4th floor where they were to sleep and entered the room where deceased was sleeping with her little child Sandeep.
Second accused Suresh Kumar got married to a girl from Rajasthan a few months before the occurrence but he did number bring his wife to Madras from Rajasthan.
The High Court seems to have accepted the companytention of the defence companynsel that PW 1 would have been in police custody from 10 6 1987 till 25 6 1987 When he was produced before the magistrate .
Form all the above features we can unhesitatingly accept the doctors opinion that Kamla Devi would have been subjected to forceful smothering.
While giving evidence the doctor companycurred with the suggestion of the prosecution that there was very good chance of the victim being alive after sustaining the injuries due to smothering and companypression of neck when she would have been in a companydition of shock.
Then all the three persons lifted her up and brought her to the balcony and tried to drop her down.
A.3 also ravished her on being prompted by the second accused.
THE 5TH DAY OF DECEMBER, 1997 Present Honble Mr.Justice M.K. Mukherjee Honble Mr.Justice K.T. Thomas Natarajan, Sr.
The entire prosecution case revolved on the solitary evidence of the approver PW 1 Bhoparam.
hence the companyviction and sentence were set aside by the High Court.
Hence the present appeals by special leave.
There are enough data to support the companyclusion that Kamla Devi would have been smothered by pressing her mouth and neck.
On 24 6 1987 he happened to numberice his photo in a Tamil daily and then he rushed back to PW 6s house and made a shrift to him of all what happened and with the help of Pw 6 he surrendered to the police.
They first gagged her mouth with a cloth but then she woke up and instinctively resisted the onslaughts of the assailants.
Each of them acquired separate business establishments.
He too was residing with his eldest brother Ramesh Kumar on the 4th floor of the building.
But she was overpowered and the third accused pressed her neck and mouth on the direction of the second accused who was holding her in his grip while she was struggling to squirm out of the lethal grip.
As the business of first accused expanded he started entertaining a feeling that if he had married from a rich family he would have got a handsome dowry.
After listing all the ante mortem injuries in Ext.
J U D G M E N T The following Judgment of the Court was delivered WITH CRIMINAL APPEAL NOS.
with him for the appearing parties.
17 to 24 are similar injuries on the chin and neck and also on the lower part of the numbere.
One of the culprits was made an approver and he gave evidence in support of the prosecution case.
V.G.Pragasam, S. Tripathi Adv.
Initially it was taken by the neighbours and the police as a case of suicide, but eventually it became a case of gruesome murder.
Her husband, a flourishing businessman at Madras number Chennai and his brother another businessman and two of their employees were put on trial in the Sessions Court for criminal companyspiracy, rape and murder.
for Ms. Rani Jethmalani, Ms. Binu Tamta, Ranjit Kumar advs.
155 156 OF 1991 THOMAS, J. A young enceinte housewife fell from the top of a four storeyed building down on the payment of a street at Madras during the odd hours on the night of 9 6 1987, and died in a trice with her skull and the bones extensively broken into pieces.
