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High Court Of Calcutta
SANKAR BHATTACHARYYA, J. N. HORE
ABED ALI JAMADAR - Appellant
Versus
STATE - Respondent
Criminal Appeal 375 Of 1983
Decided On : 04/22/1987
CRIMINAL APPEAL - Murder - Conviction and sentence of life imprisonment - Challenge - Circumstantial evidence - Whether facts and circumstances proved beyond reasonable doubt - Whether facts and circumstances are incompatible with the innocence of the accused - Judicial confession - Whether voluntary - Whether recorded in accordance with law - Held, conviction and sentence upheld.
Fact of the Case:
The appellant was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. The prosecution case was that the appellant murdered his wife by strangulation. The appellant denied the charges and claimed that he was not in the house on the night of the murder.
Finding of the Court:
The court found that the prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt that the appellant was responsible for the murder of his wife. The court relied on the following circumstantial evidence: (i) the marriage between the appellant and the deceased was unhappy and she had to leave her matrimonial home and go back to her mother's house where she stayed for another year and a half; (ii) at the instance of the appellant there was a village salish and in accordance with the decision arrived at the salish, she came back to the appellant's house about 13 days before the date of occurrence; (iii) on the night of 5-9-79 both she and the appellant slept together in the same room after bolting the door from within; (iv) on the following morning, at or about 6.30 a.m., her dead body was found inside the room; (v) on post-mortem examination of the dead body, the autopsy surgeon expressed the opinion that death was due to asphyxia as a result of strangulation and was ante-mortem and homicidal in nature; (vi) the conduct of the appellant after the discovery of the dead body was found to be unnatural; (vii) the appellant made an extra judicial confession before his neighbours shortly after the discovery of the dead body to the effect that he had committed the murder of his wife; (viii) after his production in court, the appellant also made a judicial confession to the above effect which was recorded by a judicial Magistrate under S. 164, Cr.P.C.
Issues: 1. Whether the facts and circumstances proved by the prosecution are beyond reasonable doubt and are incompatible with the innocence of the accused? 2. Whether the judicial confession of the appellant was voluntary and recorded in accordance with law?
Ratio Decidendi: 1. The court held that the facts and circumstances proved by the prosecution were beyond reasonable doubt and were incompatible with the innocence of the accused. The court relied on the following factors: * The strained relationship between the appellant and the deceased. * The fact that the appellant had an extra-marital affair. * The fact that the appellant was the last person seen with the deceased. * The fact that the appellant's conduct after the discovery of the body was suspicious. * The fact that the appellant made a judicial confession to the murder. 2. The court held that the judicial confession of the appellant was voluntary and recorded in accordance with law. The court noted that the appellant was given due caution before making the confession and that he was aware of the consequences of making the confession.
Final Decision: The court dismissed the appeal and affirmed the conviction and sentence passed against the appellant by the lower court.
( 1 ) THE subject-matter of challenge in this appeal is the judgment and order dt. 30-11-83 passed by a learned Additional Sessions Judge, Howrah convicting the appellant under S. 302, Penal Code and sentencing him to imprisonment for life.
( 2 ) SHORN of details, the prosecution case was as under :
( 3 ) MANWARA Bibi, deceased was married to the appellant Abed Ali Jamadar round about the year 1976. For about a year and a half she lived in her matrimonial home in village Rajkhola within police station Panchla. Thereafter, following an estrangement between them, she left her matrimonial home and started living with her mother in the village.
( 4 ) TOWARDS the latter part of Aug. 1979 there was village salish at the instance of the appellant to settle the controversy between him and his wife and it was decided in the salish that Manwara's mother would send her back to the appellant's house on condition that she would not be asked to do any work of Jari (lace) but would simply do household work.
( 5 ) EVEN after the salish Manwara's mother was hesitant to send her daughter to the appellant's house as she apprehended danger to her life but ultimately Manwara went to the appellant's house sometime in the last week of Aug. 1979.
( 6 ) ON the night of Sept. 6, 1979 Manwara and her husband slept together in a room of the house. On the following morning she was found lying dead inside the room with her tongue protruded and marks of small round burn injuries on her face, nose, feet and other parts of the body.
( 7 ) GETTING the news of her death the villagers came there and on interrogation, the appellant confessed before them that he committed the murder of the wife by strangulation. He further confessed that he caused the burn injuries with the blunt side of the heated needle used for lace work.
( 8 ) THE appellant was thereafter detained by the villagers while Sk. Babulal (P. W. 1), uncle of Manwara, went to the Panchla Police Station and lodged the first
information report at 10. 30 a. m. On the basis of the first information report the police registered a case of murder, took up investigation and arrested the appellant. After his production in court, the appellant made a judicial confession before a learned Magistrate to the effect that he had murdered his wife.
( 9 ) ON completion of the investigation the police submitted charge-sheet which, in the course, ended in committal of the case to the court of session.
( 10 ) THE defence of the appellant was that he was not in his house on the night of occurrence and was falsely implicated in the case.
( 11 ) THE prosecution examined all told 20 witnesses in support of its case, while the defence examined none.
( 12 ) THE murder of Manwara is not challanged before us and has also been proved by overwhelming evidence. Sk. Babulal (P. W. 1), Haliman Bibi (P. W. 2), Sarifan Bibi (P. W. 3), Sahadat (P. W. 4) Sohorab (P. W. 6), Janab Ali (P. W. 7), Yasin Ali (P. W. 11) and Asgar Ali (P. W. 12) saw the dead body of Manwara lying oh a mat inside the appellant's room with her tongue protruded and small round burn marks on different parts of her body.
( 13 ) THE autopsy on the dead body was conducted by Dr. S. N. Roy (P. W. 17), the then Sub-divisional Medical Officer of the Uluberia Hospital. He found the deceased's eyes open and protruding, the tongue protruding and small round burn injuries on the face, chest wall, nose and feet. Both the nostrils were found blocked with small pieces of cloth. There were marks of bleeding through the nostrils and one small abrasion was found on the chin.
( 14 ) ON dissection the uterus was found to contain a full term dead female child. In the opinion of Dr. Roy, death was due to asphyxia as a result of throttling which was ante-mortem and homicidal in nature. The viscera was preserved and sent to the Forensic Science Laboratories but on chemical examination no poison could be detected in the viscera.
( 15 ) THOUGH Dr. Roy
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