The Court held that the charges framed against the petitioners were liable to be set aside as there was no sufficient material on record to connect the petitioners with the offences alleged to have been committed by them and that the learned Judge below failed judicially to consider the materials on record but relied on some assumptions drawn unreasonably without any basis.

R. Bhattacharya, J.:- These three applications arise out of a Sessions Trial in the Court of the 11th Additional Sessions Judge at Alipore, 24 Parganas where several charges have been framed against the petitioners by the learned Judge after hearing the parties under S.228 of the Cr. P.C., 1973. The petitioners have come up to this Court for quashing the proceedings under S.482 of the new Code.

2. Briefly stated, the prosecution case is that one Surupa Guha was married to the accused Indranath Guha in 1966. After about a year of the marriage, there had been continued ill treatment towards Surupa from her husband Indranath, her father-in-law Satikanta Guha and her mother-in-law Pritilata Guha and such ill treatment at times became unbearable to her. On 4-5-1976 at about 10 or 10-15 a.m. Surupa came back home at 10, Hindusthan Road, Calcutta from the Science College Laboratory where she used to go for her research work. Thereafter she was given some food viz., cucumber and lassi by the servant of her house Jhantu, the accused. She took the food and subsequently she started vomiting and became seriously unwell. At about 11 a. m. the family physician came and as the condition of the patient was precarious, he advised for her immediate hospitalisation. At about 11-30 a.m. the patient was admitted to the S. S. K. M. Hospital previously known as P.G. Hospital. The patient was at once taken charge of and her treatment started. Before the doctors she stated at their request that she did not take any poison but took only cucumber and lassi. At about 1 p. m. Ramendra Mohan Mukherjee, the father of Surupa got a telephonic message that his daughter had become very sick and had been removed to the hospital. Parents and relatives of Surupa came to the hospital. Parents-in-law of Surupa, Indranath, Jhantu and others also came. Satikanta produced one bottle of Horlicks at the hospital and wanted to get it examined at the hospital. Indranath visited the Science College Laboratory for ascertaining if poison was there and got information that mercuric chloride solution was there. He also took the bed sheets and the wearing apparels of Surupa from the hospital to his house. These clothings contained the matters vomitted by Surupa. At night Indranath informed the Ballygunge Police Station that his wife, as he apprehended, might have by mistake taken some deleterious substance at the Science College or at home. The patient however died at the hospital on 4-5-1977 at about 11-30 P.M. The death certificate granted by the hospital showed that Surupa's death was due to condiorespiratory failure due to unknown poisoning. Next morning Ramendra Mohan Mukherji, the father of the deceased lodged a written complaint with Officer-in-charge of the Ballygunge Police Station for investigation into the case as he felt, considering the bad attitude of the mother-in-law and husband of Surupa, that "some kind of poison was mixed either in the cucumber or in the lassi" offered to his daughter. The police after investigation submitted charge sheet against the accused-petitioners and one Ramendranath Lahiri under Ss.120-B, 328, 302 and 201, I. P. C. The Sub-divisional Judicial Magistrate, Alipore committed the said accused persons to the Court of Session under S.209 of the new Cr. P.C. for trial. The case was transferred to the learned 11th Additional Sessions Judge, Alipore for disposal. The learned Additional Sessions Judge on consideration of the materials on record found no sufficient ground for proceeding against Ramendranath Lahiri and discharged him under S.227 of the Cr. P.C.

3. The learned Judge, however, found sufficient materials to frame charges against the petitioners presuming that they had committed offences triable by the Court of Session as indicated below:

Against Satikanta Guha, Pritilata Guha and Indranath Guha there are 3 heads of charges-

(1) Under S.120-B, I. P. C. on the allegation that they between February 1976 and 4th May, 1976 at 10 Hind