Both the companyrts also accepted the prosecution case as to motive, the well being the place where the deceased was fired at and the evidence of the eye witnesses fortified by the opinion of Dr. Ghosh that only one shot had been fired and that single shot was capable of causing all the six gun shot injuries.
The appellant was married to one of the said four daughters, Mst.
5 , in all five pellets.
Regarding the evidence as to motive, he maintained that it was at the instance of the deceased and her relations that he came to stay with her for managing her lands and that it was the deceased herself who got his sons name mutated as a companytenant with her.
As against this evidence, the appellant denied his presence and said that it was due to strained relations between him and the witnesses that the latter had given false evidence against him at the instance of Sukhraj.
The relevant facts leading to the trial of the appellant on the said charge of murder are as follows One Chandra Bhushan, a resident of village Muraon, District Fatehpur died several years ago leaving behind him his widow, the deceased Phoolmati, four daughters, all of whom were married during his life time and about 125 bighas of land under his cultivation.
1 , and three pellets from injury No.
Lakshmipati and Raja Singh, while cleansing the lota, it was possible that such a shot companyld cause injuries in her back, thigh and the left leg by some of the pellets companying out of the cartridge, particularly as in the position described by the witnesses her left leg and thigh would be in perpendicular position with her chest.
5, that is, on the victims left thigh, companyld number have been caused by a separate second shot.
That evidence was backed by the opinion of Dr. Ghosh who equally emphatically opined that all the six gunshot injuries companyld be caused by a single shot.
Death was due to shock and haemorrhage as a result of the gunshot injuries.
Phoolmati to Dr. Ghosh at the District Hospital, Fatehpur for postmortem examination.
He, however, admitted that the deceased Phoolmati had filed an application against his name being recorded in those records.
Dr. Ghoshs evidence revealed that there were in all eight injuries on the deceased Phoolmati.
He denied that after his sons death he tried to have his own name as his sons heir mutated in the revenue records.
They also sent the dead body of Mst.
Phoolmati transferred seventy bighas of the said lands in the name of wit.
During the post mortem examination, Dr. Ghosh extracted two pellets from injury No.
7 in the left leg, one such entry wound.
He suggested that companysidering the area of dispersal the shot companyld number be a single shot as deposed by witnesses, and secondly, that it companyld number nave been fired from a short distance also deposed by them.
Pursuant to the report the police arrived at about 5 p.m. and started investigation during the companyrse of which they companylected the blood stained earth amongst other things from near the well.
The prosecution relied upon the evidence as to motive, the evidence of the eye witnesses, Raja Singh P.W. 1 , Mst.
The three entry wounds were 1 on the left back three inches below the inferior angle of scapula, 2 on the left thigh lower part, and 3 on the inner aspect and upper 1/3rd of the left leg.
According to him, therefore, eleven pellets had actually hit various parts of the deceaseds body, which fact must indicate the extend of dispersal of the shot.
The evidence of wit.
The deceased opposed his proposal and got Laksmipati married to one Sukhraj.
Phoolmati was squatting cleansing the said lota at the well.
Since there were numbersigns of blackening or tattooing, the doctor was of the opinion that the firing must have been done from a distance of more than four feet at least.
Phoolmati.
Finally, he asserted that the deceased was shot at while she was in her house and number at the well, and that he had been falsely implicated in the case at the instance of Sukhraj and others who were ill disposed towards him.
Raja Singh and Lakshmipati brought some of the neighbours at the spot.
Out of six gun shot injuries, three were entry and the rest were exit wounds.
He denied that he had expressed any desire to marry Lakshmipati or that he was enraged because the deceased had Lakshmipati married to Sukhraj, or that he had gone that morning to the deceased and demanded a share in her lands, or that he became angry with the deceased giving him a flat refusal.
The alarm raised by her when she was shot and by wits.
Descending the steps leading to the well, the appellant fired a companyntrymade pistol from behind Mst.
Phoolmati was homicidal and caused by firing from a pistol from behind her.
It appears that by the time they arrived, the incident was over and the appellant had left on his cycle.
Phoolmati died almost instantaneously.
Raja Singh lodged the first information report soon thereafter at the nearest police station.
A little later that morning, the deceased was cleansing a lota at the well situated between her house and the said temple.
The appellant then left on his cycle towards the south.
Lakshmipati lost her husband within five or six months of her marriage, and then started living with her mother, the deceased Phoolmati.
Dr. Ghosh was of the further opinion that all the three entry wounds were caused by a single shot fired from behind the victim, and that if the victim was in squatting posture, as described by wits.
Six were gun shot injuries, two were abrasions.
The evidence of the third witness, Ram Bishal, who was put forward by the prosecution as another eye witness, was found by both the companyrts as unacceptable.
Shelat, J. This appeal, by special leave, is directed against the order of companyviction and sentence of death passed against the appellant by the Sessions Judge, Fatehpur under Section 302 of the Penal Code and companyfirmed by the High Court, Allahabad.
The two abrasions were companysistent with the version of the eye witnesses that as a result of the impact of the pistol shot the deceased had fallen down from the squatting position she was in at the time when she was fired at from behind.
Lakshmipati P.W. 2 and Ram Bishal P.W. 4 , the Medical evidence, and lastly, the evidence of the investigating officer that human blood was found at the well where, according to the prosecution, the deceased was shot at from behind while she was sitting in a crouched position cleansing the lota.
Both the Trial Court and the High Court accepted as true and reliable the eye witness account given by Raja Singh and Lakshmipati, holding that in the circumstances of the case they were the most probable and natural witnesses.
