Judgement

BHARGAVA, J.: These three appeals all arise out of a trial held by the Additional Sessions Judge of Patna in respect of a charge of murder of an old lady Rohini Kuer, wife of Munshi Chaudhary, residing in village Lohra, Police Station Bakhtiarpur, District Patna. The prosecution case was that, on the night between 17th and 18th June, 1961, Rohini Kuer, who was aged about 60 years, was sleeping on a cot in the courtyard of her house and, nearby on a smaller cot was sleeping her niece, Manti who was about 11 years of age. Munshi Chaudhary himself, his sons and daughters-in-law were at Ranchi where one of his sons had been posted as a Block Development Officer, During the night, Rohini Kuer had closed all the doors and had put a lock from inside on the connecting door between the female apartment and the male apartment of the house. Some time during the night, three miscreants entered the female apartment by cutting a hole in the wall on the western side of the connecting door and began to ransack different rooms of the house. Rohini Kuer woke up on hearing the sounds, while the miscreants were breaking open the boxes and removing the Articles. She got up from her bed, accosted the thieves and also called out to Manti. Two of those persons rushed at her, threw her down on the verandah and inflicted several injuries on her body. One of them brought out a sword which was kept in the southern room adjacent to the verandah and cut her neck in the light of the electric torch which had been lighted by the third person. Thereafter, they took away cash, clothes and ornaments having broken open several boxes. They also took away an iron safe. Manti pretended to be asleep and did not cry out due to fear. At one stage, one of the thieves suggested that she should also be killed, but another one intervened and suggested that it was unnecessary to commit her murder. Manti continued lying on her cot till dawn when the came out of the house through the hole which had been cut by the thieves and started weeping. While She was in the Baithak of Munshi Chaudhary, one Bhagwat Prasad, who was passing by, enquired what the matter was, She told him that Daiya had been cut. Daiya was the term by which she used to address Rohini Kuer who war her father s sitter. Bhagwat Prasad then entered the female apartment through the same hole and found the dead body of Rohini Kuer lying in the verandah, As he came out after seeing the dead body, Ramkishun Chukidar also arrived. Both of them then went to Hamaut Police outpost four miles away where Bhagwat Prasad lodged a First Information Report which was recorded by Assistant Sub-Inspector Jagdish Singh at about 8 A.M. the date being 18th June, 1961. He sent a copy of the Report to Bhaktiarpur Police Station for institution of a case and himself proceeded to the scene of occurrence at 10.30 A. M. It is said that, in the meantime, Manti s mother had arrived and she told Manti not to disclose the names of the offenders lest she should also be killed Jagdish Singh, A.S. I,, inspected the place of occurrence, notice the hole that had been cut in the wall and actually went inside through the same opening. He found the dead body lying in the verandah and also noticed some footprints on the floor near the dead body. A bloodstained sword kept in a sheath was also found by him in a room adjacent to the verandah where he also found another footprint in bloodstains. He prepared the inquest report and sent the dead body of Rohini Kuer for postmortem examination. The investigation was then taken over by Inspector of Police, Lakshmi Narain Pathak, who took statements of various witnesses. According to him, though he was able to record a detailed statement of Manti covering about two pages, Manti refused to disclose the names of the culprits and started weeping when she was asked to give out the names. He sent a requisition to Patna for a police dog and a photographer. Three days later, on 21st June, the police dog an