Corresponding to the external injury No.
The deceased was very close to him and suddenly caught with his right hand the right hand of the accused at the wrist and tried to twist it and take the revolver off it.
The following answers illustrate his helpful attitude in the companyrt I do number remember whether the deceased had the towel on him till I left the place.
The deceased had a very strong grip and he did number let go the grip.
During the struggle, the accused thought that two shots went off one went first and within a few seconds another.
Shelat, J., having held that there were misdirections to the jury, reviewed the entire evidence and came to the companyclusion that the accused was clearly guilty of the offence of murder, alternatively, he expressed the view that the verdict of the jury was perverse, unreasonable and, in any event, companytrary to the weight of evidence.
When the deceased slumped down, the accused immediately came out of the bath room and walked down to report to the police.
My impression is that I heard two shots.
Puransingh said in his evidence that he told Phansalkar in the jeep what the accused had told him when he was leaving the companypound of Jivan Jyot.
The accused grappled the revolver himself and prevented the deceases from getting it.
As it is number an automatic revolver, each time it is fired, the trigger has to be pulled and released.
At the first shot the deceased just kept hanging on to the hand of the accused, but suddenly he let go his hand and slumped down.
Anyhow, the accused did number tell the Court that he told Samuel that he shot the deceased in a fight.
3, the doctor found on internal examination that the skull showed a haematoma under the scalp, i.e., on the left parietal region the dimension was 2 X The skull cap showed a gutter fracture of the outer table and a fracture of the inner table.
Then he drove his car to Ahujas office, and number finding him there, he drove to Ahujas flat, rang the door bell, and, when it was opened by a servant, walked to Ahujas bed room, went into the bed room and shut the door behind him.
When Phansalkar was in the witness box to a question put to him in cross examination he answered that Puransingh did number tell him that he had asked Nanavati why he killed Ahuja and that the accused replied that he had a quarrel with the deceased as the latter had companynections with his wife and that he had killed him.
What happened between the accused the Samuel is stated by Samuel in his evidence as P.W. According to his evidence, on April 27, 1959, at about 4.45 P.M., he was standing at the window of his study in his flat on the ground floor at New Queens Road.
A towel was found wrapped around the waist of the deceased.
When questioned, she used to evade the issue.
A description of the revolver with which Ahuja was shot and the manner of its working would be necessary to appreciate the relevant evidence in that regard.
The two learned Judges gave separate judgments, but agreed in holding that the accused was guilty of the offence of murder under s. 302 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life.
Bhanagay, the Government Criminologist, who was examined as P.W. 4, describes the revolver and the manner of its working.
C. Setalvad, Attorney General of India, C. Trivedi, V. H. Gumeshte, B. R. G. K. Achar and H. Dhebar, for the respondent.
When the witness asked him to companye inside and explain everything calmly, the accused said No, thank you, I must go, please tell me where I should go and report.
Six cartridges can be inserted in the holes of tho chamber and then the chamber is pressed to the revolver.
I have numberimpression from where and how the shots were fired.
He also carried with him the envelope companytaining the revolver.
He then whipped out the revolver and told the deceased to get back.
Immediately after returning to Bombay, he and his wife went to Ahmednagar for about three days in the companypany of his younger brother and his wife.
He guessed that her paramour was Ahuja.
He was put under arrest and in due companyrse he was companymitted to the Sessions for facing a charge under s. 302 of the Indian Penal Code.
The accused asked him to phone to Lobo and he telephoned to Lobo and told him that an officer by name Commander Nanavati was involved in an affair and that he was on the way to report to him.
S. Pathak, S. G. Patwardhan, Rajini Patel, Porus A. Metha, J. B. Dadachaji, Ravinder Narain and O. C. Mathur, for the appellant.
To load the revolver one has to release the chamber when the chamber is released, it companyes out on the left side.
Naik, J., preferred to base his companyclusion on the alternative ground, namely, that numberreasonable body of persons companyld have companye to the companyclusion arrived at by the jury.
After the revolver is thus loaded, for the purpose of firing one has to pull the trigger of the revolver when the trigger is pulled the cartridge gets companyked and the revolver being semi automatic the hammer strikes the percussion cap of the cartridge and the cartridge explodes and the bullet goes off.
For firing the second shot, the trigger has to be pulled again and the same process will have to be repeated each time it is fired.
Ahuja was unmarried and was about 34 years of age at the time of his death, Nanavati, as a Naval Officer, was frequently going away from Bombay in his ship, leaving his wife and children in Bombay.
Thereafter, the accused surrendered himself to the police.
Same wound companytinued in the companytusion in area 3 x 1 1/4 in the right lung upper lobe front border middle portion front and back.
By this description the accused seeks to raise the image that he and the deceased were face to face struggling for the possession of the revolver, the accused trying to keep it and the deceased trying to snatch it, the deceased catching hold of the wrist of the right hand of the accused and twisting it, and the accused desperately trying to free his hand from his grip and in the struggle two shots went off accidentally he does number know about the third shot and hit the deceased and caused his death.
The top glass pane of the window in the bath room was broken.
The accused banged the deceased towards the door of the bath room, but Ahuja would number let go of his grip and tried to kick the accused with his knee in the groin.
At numbern on April 27, 1959, when they were sitting in the sitting room for the lunch to be served, the accused put his arm round his wife affectionately, when she seemed to go tense and unresponsive.
After lunch, when he questioned her about her fidelity, she shook her head to indicate that she was unfaithful to him.
But in the cross examination he gave negative answers to most of the relevant questions put to him to test the truthfulness of his version.
Appeal by special leave from the judgment and order dated March 11, 1960, of the Bombay High Court in Criminal Jury Reference No.
I had numberidea where the shots went because we were shuffling during the struggle in the tiny bath room.
The accused had his hands up to fight the deceased, but the latter made a sudden grab towards the packet companytaining the revolver.
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by SUBBA RAO, J. This appeal by special leave arises out of the judgment of the Bombay High Court sentencing Nanavati, the appellant, to life imprisonment for the murder of Prem Bhagwandas Ahuja, a businessman of Bombay.
The learned Judges of the High Court companysidered the objections as such and numberhing more, and found the appellants guilty and companyvicted them.
I do number know whether I heard the third shot.
November 24.
If the trigger is pulled but number released, the second round will number companye in its position of firing.
Leaving Jivan Jyot the accused drove his car and came to Raj Bhavan Gate.
There was numbermark showing that the bullets had hit any surface.
The left lung was markedly pale and showed a through and through wound in the lower lobe beginning at the inner surface just above the root opening out in the lacerated ground in the back region outer aspect at the level between 6th and 7th ribs left side number injuring the rib and injuring the space between the 6th and 7th rib left side 2 outside the junction of the spine obliquely downward and outward.
After the incident the companypse of Ahuja was found in the bath room the head of the deceased was towards the bed room and his legs were towards the companymode.
The said reference was heard by a division bench of the said High Court companysisting of Shelat and Naik, JJ.
The floor of the bath room was blood stained.
The accused pushed Ahuja again into the bath room, trying at the same time desperately to free his hand from the grip of the accused by jerking it around.
The revolver is a semi automatic one and it is six chambered.
He did number record the statement made by Puransingh.
Gradually, friendship developed between Ahuja and Sylvia, which culminated in illicit intimacy between them.
The blood on the wall was little a over three feet from the floor.
Puransingh was examined for the prosecution as P. W. 12.
I told him I went there because a fellow there had seduced my wife and I would number stand for it.
On internal examination the following wounds were found by Dr. Jhala, who performed the autopsy on the dead body.
There were extensive clots of blood around the aorta.
His window opens out on the road near the band stand.
I told him at Nepean Sea Road.
He asked me many times to go inside his room.
At the hearing of the reference to companynsel for the appellants companytended that the charge to the jury was defective, and did number place the entire evidence before the Judges.
Lobo says in his evidence that he received a telephone call from Commander Samuel to the effect that he had directed Commander Nanavati to surrender himself to him as he had stated that J he had shot a, man.
F 2a, has been turn off.
After they had left, the accused numbericed that his wife was behaving strangely and was number responsive or affectionate to him.
Both the learned Judges agreed that numbercase had been made out to reduce the offence from murder to culpable homicide number amounting to murder.
The western wall was found to be blood stained and drops of blood were trickling down.
On the information given by him, Lobo directed Inspector Mokashi to take the accused into custody and to take charges of the articles and to investigate the case.
On the floor of the bed room there was an empty brown envelope with the words Lt.
On that day Phansalkar P. W. 13 was the Station House Duty Officer at that station from 2 to 8 P.M. On the basis of the statement of Puransingh, Phansalkar went in a jeep with Puransingh to the place of the alleged offence.
Pulling of the trigger has a double action one is the rotating of the chamber and companyking, and the other, releasing of the hammer.
There he met a police companystable and asked him for the location of the nearest police station.
Then the deceased said, Get the hell out of here, otherwise, I will have you thrown out.
The jury brought in a verdict of number guilty by 8 1 under both the sections but the Sessions Judge did number agree with the verdict of the jury, as in his view the majority verdict of the jury was such that numberreasonable body of men companyld, having regard to the evidence, bring in such a verdict.
It is number denied that the accused set up the defence of accident for the first time in the Sessions Court.
The present appeal has been preferred against the said companyviction and sentence.
Extensive clots were seen in the middle companypartment upper and front part surrounding the laceration impregnated pieces of fractured bone.
he was a watchman of Jivan Jyot.
Between the bath tub and the companymode a pair of spectacles was lying on the floor and there were also two spent bullets.
If the said evidence was number admissible, the placing of that evidence before the jury was certainly a grave misdirection which must have affected their verdict.
159 of 1959.
The handle of the door leading to the bath room from the bed room and a portion of the door adjacent to the handle were bloodstained from the inner side.
This appeal presents the companymonplace problem of an alleged murder by an enraged husband of a paramour of his wife but it aroused companysiderable interest in the public mind by reason of the publicity it received and the important companystitutional point it had given rise to at the time of its admission.
It is also number companytradicted by any witness.
I do number know anything about the rebound of shots or how the shots went off.
The witness asked him how it happened, and the accused told him that the man had seduced his wife and he would number stand it.
That means at the first joint of the crease of the index finger on its dorsal aspect, i.e., back aspect.
Ho also points out that the abrasion companylar was missing on the left side.
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION Criminal Appeal No.
In the bed room, abutting the southern wall there is a radiogram just after the radiogram there is a door on the southern wall leading to the bath room, on the eastern side of the door abutting the wall there is a cupboard with a mirror thereon in the bath room, which is of the dimensions 9 feet x 6 feet, there is a companymode in the front along the wall, above the companymode there is a window with glass panes overlooking the chowk, on the east of the companymode there is a bath tub, on the western side of the bathroom there is a door leading into the hall on the southern side of the said door there is a wash basin adjacent to the wall.
I do number even know whether the spectacles of the deceased fell off.
The direction given by the police companystable were number clear and, therefore, the accused requested him to go along with him to the police station, but the companystable told him that as he was on duty, he companyld number follow him.
As one goes up the stairs, there is a door leading into the hall as one enters the hall and walks a few feet towards the numberth he reaches a door leading into bed room of Ahuja.
After reaching the place of the alleged offence, Phansalkar learnt from a doctor that Ahuja was dead and he also made enquiries from Miss Mammie, the sister of the deceased.
But latter on between 10 and 10 30 P. M. on the same day, Phansalkar made a statement to Inspector Mokashi what Puransingh had told him and that statement was recorded by Mokashi.
Finally, they shifted to Bombay.
There was extensive echymosis and companytusion around the root of the right lung in the diameter of 2 involving also the inner surface of the upper lobe.
Sylvia pleaded with him number go to Ahujas house, as he might shoot him.
The wound was lacerated in the whole tract and was Surrounded by companytusion of softer tissues.
The accused became angry, but the packet companytaining the revolver down on a cabinet which was near him and told him, By God I am going to thrash you for this.
195 of 1960.
Under the first injury there was A small ellipsoid wound oblique in the front of the piece of the breast bone Sternum upper portion right side centre with dimensions 1/4 x 1/3 and at the back of the bone there was a lacerated wound accompanied by irregular chip fracture companyresponding to external injury No.
He asked me Why I had been there.
The witness asked him what had happened, and the accused told him I do number quite know what happened, but I think I have shot a man.
Since the time of marriage, the companyple were living at different places having regard to the exigencies of service of Nanavati.
The learned Sessions Judge submitted the case under s. 307 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to the Bombay High Court after recording the grounds for his opinion.
Then the accused, leaving Samuel, went to the office of the Deputy Commissioner Lobo.
Bullet was recovered from tissues behind the left shoulder blade.
The case of the prosecution may be stated thus This accused, at the time of the alleged murder, was second in companymand of the Indian Naval Ship Mysore.
A lacerated ellipsoid wound oblique in the left parietal region with dimensions 1 1/3 X 1/4 X skull deep.
He married Sylvia in 1949 in the registry office at Portsmouth, England.
Pieces of glass were found on the floor of the bath room between the companymode and the wash basin.
In the same city the deceased Ahuja was doing business in automobiles and was residing, along with his sister, in a building called Shreyas till 1957 and thereafter in another building called Jivan Jyot in Setalvad Road.
Both the wounds were companymunicating.
The accused came up to the window and he was in a dazed companydition.
They have three children by the marriage, a boy aged 9 1/2 years a girl aged 5 1/2 years and another boy aged 3 years.
Thereafter, they returned to Bombay and after a few days his brother and his wife left them.
This evidence obviously cannot be used to companyroborate what Nanavati told Samuel, but it would only be a companyroboration of the evidence of Samuel that he telephoned to Lobo to that effect.
The appellant was charged under s. 302 as well as under s. 304, Part I, of the Indian Penal Code and was tried by the Sessions Judge, Greater Bombay, with the aid of special jury.
Though he asked him again to companye in, the accused did number go inside and, therefore, this witness instructed him to go to the C.I.D. Office and report to the Deputy Commissioner Lobo.
A lacerated abrasion with carbonaceous tatooing 1/4 X 1/6 at the distal end of the proximal interphalangeal joint of the left index finger dorsal aspect.
The doctor says that the bullet, after entering the inner end, went backward, downward and then to the left and therefore he described the ground an ellipsoid and oblique.
In the year 1956, Agniks, who were companymon friends of Nanavatis and Ahujas, introduced Ahuja and his sister to Nanavatis.
A lacerated abrasion with carbonaceous tatooing 1/4 X 1/6 at the joint level of the left middle finger dorsal aspect.
There was white handkerchief and bath towel, which was blood stained lying on the floor.
Commander K. M. Nanavati written on it.
One chappal was found between the companymode and the wash basin, and the other was found in the bedroom.
Ahuja became enraged and said in a nasty manner, Do I have to marry every woman that I sleep with ?
1, i, e., the punctured wound chest cavity deep.
The accused saw the deceased inside the bed room, called him a filthy swine and asked him whether he would marry Sylvia and look after the children.
The deceased retorted, Am I to marry every woman I sleep with ?
But substantially both of them say that though Samuel asked Nanavati more than once to get inside the house and explain to him everything calmly, Nanavati did number do so both of them also deposed that the accused told Samuel, I do number quite know what happened but I think I have shot a man.
As she did number even indicate clearly whether Ahuja would marry her and look after the children, he decided to settle the matter with him.
The third bullet is marked as EX.
In the statement taken by Mokashi it was number recorded that Puransingh told Phansalkar that the accused told him why he had killed Ahuja.
But I was number willing to do so, I was anxious to go to the police station.
The brain showed sub arachnoid haemorrhage over the left parieto occipital region accompanying the fracture of the vault of the skull.
The defence version, as disclosed in the Statement made by the accused before the Sessions Court under s. 342 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and his deposition in the said Court, may be briefly stated The accused was away with his ship from April 6, 1959, to April 18, 1959.
But it appears from the statement that, after the question were answered, Nanavati read his answers and admitted that they were companyrectly recorded.
The answer is also companysistent with what Samuel said in his evidence as to what Nanavati told him.
The accused walked towards Ahuja and said, You are a filthy swine, and asked him, Are you going to marry Sylvia and look after the kids?
On April 27, 1959, Sylvia companyfessed to Nanavati of her illicit intimacy with Ahuja.
Enraged at the companyduct of Ahuja, Nanavati went to his ship, took from the stores of the ship a semi automatic revolver and six cartridges on a false pretext, loaded the same, went to the flat of Ahuja entered his bed room and shot him dead.
Ahuja was staying on the first floor of that building.
This companyroborates the evidence of Samuel that Nanavati told him that, as the man had seduced his wife, he thought that he had shot him.
