The burden of proof lies on the accused to establish the defence of insanity, but the accused is entitled to the benefit of doubt if the evidence raises a reasonable doubt as to whether the accused was of unsound mind at the time of the offence.

Ahmad, J.

1. The appellant Kamla Singh has been convicted under Sec.302, I. P. C., for having committed the murder of his two brothers Kailash Singh and Veyas Singh and has been sentenced to transportation for life. The trial was held with the aid of three assessors, one of whom opined that the accused was guilty and the other two that he was not.

2. The occurrence is said to have taken place on 2-10-1952, at about 10 p.m. In the family house of the appellant in village Kesrahi within, the jurisdiction of police station Daudnagar, which is at a distance of about four miles from it. All the family members including the appellant, his two deceased brothers and his mother were then living in that house. The house is closed all round with an entrance door on the north. Within the house there is a courtyard and on the east and south of the courtyard are the two closed verandahs. There are in all four rooms therein leaving the dwara where the entrance door is fitted. One of the rooms is situated on the southwest corner of it and is connected with the closed verandah on the south. That room, it appears, is generally used by the family as a cow-shed and pegs are fitted therein to tether animals. It is this room wherein the appellant is said to have assaulted his two brothers with a lota on their heads which caused instantaneous death to Kailash and fatal injury to Veyas Singh who ultimately died soon thereafter as a result thereof.

3. The facts leading to the murder have not been in this case challenged. What was pleaded at the trial and argued in this Court in defence was that at the time of the occurrence the accused was insane and he had lost his cognitive faculties and therefore his case falls within the provisions of Section 84; I. P. C., and as such he cannot be said in law to have committed any offence.

4. The admitted facts of the case are that the accused who at the time of the occurrence was aged about twenty-five years, while still a student in Class XI in the Daudnagar K. E, School, deve-loped symptoms of insanity and so he was then put into, Kanke Hospital on 14-12-1950. Before his admission into the Kanke Hospital, it is said, the appellant used to tear his clothes, walk naked and ease with clothes on indiscriminately at all places. In Kanke Hospital he improved soon and was discharged from there on 12-1-1951. For some time after the discharge, he remained quite normal but soon thereafter he again started behaving abnormally. About a year and a half before the present occurrence, he had assaulted one Kayast gentleman of his village. Due to the abnormalities in his conduct, the accused in his house during night time was usually kept locked ia the cow-shed by .the family members in order to avoid any -untoward incident which he might resort to then. His mental disquietness aggravated very much since some three months before the occurrence.

On the day of occurrence it. is admitted, that he became still more wild and his two brothers apprehending some danger from him put fetters round the feet of the appellant and that day he was mostly kept outside the house on the verandah. His fetters were, however, partially loose and so he could move about at least in his own house. And then his hands were also free. It is said that on being chained by his two brothers, his mental condition got all the more violent and he goaded by that idea began shouting in the house and abusing his brothers. At noon he refused to take food and kept behaving abnormally. In the night at about meal time the appellant Was brought to the zenana house with fetters on his feet and while he was there in the cow-shed he suddenly threw a brickbat at his mother Deo-barat Kuer (P. W. 2). This hit her on her head and she fell down on the ground and became unconscious. Seeing her falling Kailash Singh rushed to help his mother. As he entered the cow-Shed, the appellant lifted a lota from the angan and struck him straight on his head. At this his other brot