TMI Blog1951 (1) TMI 36X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t of the death was made and police investigation followed. In spite of various visits of the police officers to the site and inquiries made in the village, nothing was traced. On 28-10-1949, i.e., about five months after the death of Kawadu the appellant was arrested. When his house was searched one knife with a wooden handle, one white and dirty piece of dhoti suspected to have blood stains and one rusted axe, without handle, found buried three feet below the ground in the kitchen, were taken possession of by the police. On the same day another white dirty dhoti 4 1/2 cubits long suspected to have stains of blood in the middle, here and there was also taken charge of by the police from the brother of the appellant. On 30th October the police seized from one Mangroo certain ear ornaments which appeared to have old blood like marks here and there. On 31st October they further seized from the house of the appellant one crowbar of iron and a receipt dated 25-9-1949 in respect of payment of tax for a she-buffalo. The appellant was taken before Mr. Bhuskute, Magistrate 1st Class, Sakoli, on 9-11-1949 for recording his confession. The Magistrate warned the appellant that he was not ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... I have not beaten (Killed) the old man. Because the police thrashed me, I out of fear stated that I had struck with a crowbar built is not true. I have not committed the murder. 2. After the committal proceedings, the appellant was tried before the Sessions Judge with four assessors. He was charged with the offence of murder under Section 302 and with dishonestly misappropriating property possessed by the said Kawadu at the time of his death, under Section 404, I. P. C. The assessors unanimously found the appellant not guilty of any offence. The Sessions Judge in a detailed and considered judgment also found the appellant not guilty of any offence and acquitted him The State Government appealed to the High Court and the High Court reverse the finding of the Sessions Judge and convicted the appellant of the offence of murder and sentenced him to death. The matter was fully argued before us in detail and as in our opinion the conclusion of the High Court was not correct we directed that the appellant be set at liberty and we now give our reasons for our conclusion. 3. The case of the prosecution before the sessions Judge was that three or four days before 26-5-1949 the appel ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... uded that there was clearly reasonable doubt in respect of the guilt of the accused on the evidence put before the court. It, therefore, requires good and sufficiently cogent reasons to overcome such reasonable doubt before the appeal court comes to a different conclusion. In our opinion the Sessions Judge had correctly analysed the evidence and put them under the heads mentioned above. In respect of the first head it is necessary only to point out that the story on the face of it is difficult to be accepted. If the appellant had the intention of murdering the deceased in a few days and take away his gold ornaments, he would be .the last person to tell the deceased that he should not wear those ornaments lest someone may murder him to rob him of the ornaments. It will be creating in advance evidence for his own conviction. In our opinion this story is quite unreal and should be completely disregarded. The evidence under head 2 leads to no conclusion. The deceased was sitting in open fields near two mango trees. It is not disputed that during the day many persons; could and in the ordinary course would pass by the spot where the deceased used to sit. No witness has even suggested ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... document, which itself shows two different results, is practically nullified by the second document. In this unsatisfactory state of the evidence, the Sessions Judge, in our opinion, was right in holding that both in the matter of the production of the axe and on the question of blood being found on the axe the evidence is unreliable and cannot be considered as evidence to prove the guilt of the appellant. 5. The discovery of a blood-stained piece of cloth from the house of the appellant leads to no conclusion against him on the charge of murder . While the chemical examiner found blood on it, the Imperial Serologist could not say that it was human blood. The discovery of one or more dhotis with some stains of blood, which are not ascertained to be human blood, five months after the alleged murder cannot be stated to be evidence of murder against the appellant. The Sessions Judge was quite right in observing that if some blood stains are found on clothes of persons engaged in cutting roots and working in the jungle they cannot be put down as evidence of murder. The dhoti seized from the appellant's brother Motiram was not even found in the possession of the appellant. Under ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the interval, the presumption may not be permitted to be drawn having regard to the circumstances of the case. This criticism applied equally to the reasoning of the High Court for its conclusion. 8. In the present case, the Sessions Judge has examined in detail the evidence in respect of the ornaments and has given reasons for his conclusion that the ornaments were not proved to be the ornaments of the deceased. (After discussion of the evidence on this point His Lord ship concluded). Under the circumstances we are unable to accept the theory that the ornaments seized by the police from the possession of Mangroo were the ornaments of the deceased Kawadu. In our opinion, the reasons given by the Sessions Judge for rejecting the statements of witnesses that the ornaments seized from the possession of Mangroo were the ornaments of the deceased Kawadu are sound and we are unable to accept the reasons given by the High Court for holding that these ornaments were of the deceased Kawadu. 9. The judgment of the High Court is principally based on the identity of these ornaments. The rest of the judgment of the High Court is defective in not taking into consideration the different de ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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