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, accost