The mens rea required for attempt to murder under Section 307, IPC, is the intention to cause death or the knowledge that one's act is likely to cause death.

Banerji, J.

1. The appellant has been convicted under Sec.307, I.P.C. and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years by Mr. F. Khan, a Magistrate, with powers under Sec.30, Cr. P.C. He has, also, been convicted under Section 19(f), Arms Act, and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year with the direction that the two sentences should run concurrently.

2. On 7-2-1954, which was a Sunday, Kashinath Tripathi (P.W. 2), Kameshwar Tewari (P.W. 3) and Maldeo Tewari (P.W. 4) had gone to a place called Chianki in the district of Palamau to cut grass. They saw the accused sitting on a bundle-and either reading or singing with reference to a cinema-book. The three witnesses, on seeing a stranger in that locality, accosted him and he replied that he had come there to arrange a marriage of his sister and then enquired if there was a rich Brahman in the village who would be desirous of entering into a marriage negotiation. As this man, the accused, had a book, which he was reading, which happened to be in Urdu, the witnesses suspected that he was telling a lie and that, most probably he was not a Hindu but was a Muhammadan. P.W. 1 then saw something projecting from the bundle which appeared to him like the barrel of a pistol. He drew the attention of his companions and they, also, saw the barrel-end of the pistol sticking out of the bundle. The accused, on being further questioned, stood up, took out the pistol and pointed the same to these three witnesses. The witnesses stepped back and, when they were at some distance, the accused fired several rounds and then started running away from the spot. The three witnesses commenced chasing him and raised a hue and cry which drew the attention of other villagers and they including Sheonandan Singh (P.W. 5) and Nagina Singh (P.W. 6), joined in the chase and, subsequently, at a distance of two miles from Chianki in village Bhusahi, the accused was arrested and, because he was struggling, he was assaulted with lathis by the villagers. While running away, the accused threw away two chhuras with scabbards (Exs. IV and IV/1), a sendhmarni (Ex.- III) and some other articles in order to facilitate his flight. When he was, at last, overpowered, a search of his person was taken by the villagers and a pistol and several live cartridges were recovered. The villagers, also, recovered two empty cartridges which were found on the way from Chianki and they produced the accused before R.N. Dutta (P.W. 7), Sub-Inspector of police of Daltonganj, at 5-30 P.M. They produced also the pistol, the cartridges and the other articles, which the accused had thrown away while he was being chased by the villagers. The sub-Inspector noticed that the pistol was giving out fresh smell of gun powder and its butt was in a damaged condition. He went to Bhusahi, where the accused was said to have been arrested and inspected the field belonging to one Ramkhelawan Singh. It was in this field that the accused is said to have been ultimately overpowered and arrested by the villagers. The Sub-Inspector found blood stains on some clods of earth in this field and, also found the wooden piece which fitted with the butt of the pistol produced by the villagers at the police station. He sent the firearm and the ammunition to the Police Laboratory Arms expert in a sealed packet through Constable Lachhmi Narain Choudhary (P.W. 13) and obtained sanction of the Deputy Commissioner of Palamau for the prosecution of the accused under Sec.19 (f), Indian Arms Act.

The Fire Anns Expert of the Government, to whom the firearm and the ammunition were sent is Babu Gurupada Bhattacharaya (P.W. 15). According to him, the pistol (Ext. V) was a country-made one and the cartridge cases (Exs. VI and VI/1) and the misfired cartridge (Ex. VI/3) had been fired or attempted to be fired from the pistol (Ex. V). The pistol was in a perfect working order and could effectively be used as a firearm. The barrel of the pistol was exam