1. The two appellants have been sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment and to 12 stripes each for committing rape. Basuvi, the woman whom they are said to have raped on 26th August 1929, was found drowned on 30th August 1929 in a neighboring canal.

2. Therefore she has not given evidence and a preliminary question of law arises whether her statement to her mother-in-law P. W. 2, made shortly after the alleged departure of the two accused from her bedroom on 26th August 1929 is admissible in evidence. The learned Judge holds that it is admissible not only under Section 32 (1), Evidence Act, as relating to the cause of her death; but also under Sections 6 and 8 of the Act, an observation which argues little attention either to fact or law.

3. The woman is said to have been raped on Monday and was alive on Thursday morning and so Section 32 can have no applicability. That section refers to the actual cause of death, or to the transaction resulting in death. If a woman is raped, and decides three clays later to commit suicide the rape is not the cause of her death or, transaction resulting in her death, though it may be the contingent motive. Then her statement could only