1966 Supreme(Raj) 269
Rajasthan High Court
Bhandari & Shinghal, JJ.
State of Rajasthan - Appellant
Versus
Inder Singh - Respondents
D.B. Criminal Appeal No.70 of 1965
Decided On : December 22, 1966
Raj Narain, Dy. Government Advocate, for State; O.C. Chatterji, for Respondent Indersingh; M.B.L. Bhargava, for Complainant
Headnote:(a) Penal Code, Sec. 302— Identity of deceased—Dead body wearing same cloth as last seen on deceased is sufficient proof that corpse is of same person though too far decomposed;to be identified otherwise.(b) Penal Code, Sec. 201—Recovery of dead body at the instance of accused where he made further statement that he had buried it there.(c) Penal Code, Secs. 302 and 201—Recovery of dead body at instance of accused—Accused stating that he had buried the corpse at the place—Death by violence may be proved by circumstantial evidence.
2. Abbas also submitted a written report at Jodhpur. This report was sent to Police Station, Dechu, where First Information Report was drawn up and an offence under sec. 364 I.P.C. was registered on 15-5-63 and investigation was started by Mehboob Khan (PW. 18) Station House Officer, Dechu Police Station. The four persons, who had been sent in search of Abdul Salam, informed him that Indersingh respondent had killed Abdul Salam Alias Sheroo and that thereafter, he had gone to village Bamanoo, but Indersingh could not be found, on 17-5-63. Mehboob Khan came to know that Indersingh had gone towards Jodhpur. The Deputy Superintendent of Police, Jodhpur, who had also visited Asarlai, came to know that Indersingh was at Jodhpur. He found him out and took him to village Asarlai where he was formally arrested on 18-5-63. On the same day, Indersingh furnished information which was recorded in a memorandum (Ex. P/2). The admissible portion of the information is that he had buried a dead |body in the Charbara near a khejri tree after digging a round pit. He also furnished details about the clothes which were on the corpse and also the articles which were buried with the corpse. Thereafter Indersingh took the investigating officer and motbirs Vijay Singh and Ranidansingh to his charbara which was enclosed with a thorn enclosure up to a mans height. It had a door which was closed. Then Indersingh went to a khejri tree and pointed out the place where he had buried the dead body of Abdul Salam alias Sheroo and the other articles mentioned in Ex. P/20. Indersingh then dug up the place to depth of about one cubit. Several articles (Exhibits 4 to 11) the details of which we shall give here after were then recovered. Beneath these articles there were the branches of Ak tree and then a dead body was found. On the dead body was a shirt (Ex. 1), salwar (Ex. 2) and banian (Ex. 3)- The dead body and these various articles were at once recognized by Allahdin and others to be of Abdul Salam deceased. All these articles were seized and the recovery memo. (Ex. P/9) prepared.
3. The investigating officer also prepared the site plan (Ex. P/15), furnishing the details about it in Ex. P/16. Information was sent to Dr. Bhimpuri, Medical Officer-in charge, Government Hospital, Phalodi, who was asked to go to village Asarlai to perform the post mortem examination. He reached Asarlai on 19-5-63 and performed the post mortem examination at 9 00 A. M. The dead body was practically decomposed and at places decomposed flesh was forming a mass and the bones were separate. The injuries in the soft tissues could not be traced out on account of decomposition, but there was a fracture of the mandible on the left side of the symphysis and of the right condylar process. On account of decomposition, the doctor could not give his opinion about the cause of death. The post mortem examination report is Ex. P/26.
4. On