JUDGMENT

Walsh, J. - In this case one Lakhan Chamar has been convicted under S. 302, Indian Penal Code, and sentenced to death and has appealed against that conviction. With him was convicted one Mathura Ojha of an offence under S. 325, Indian Penal Code, and sentenced to 7 years rigorous imprisonment, and one Narain Koeri of an offence under S. 201, Indian Penal Code, and also sentenced to 7 years rigorous imprisonment. Two other persons along with these three, namely, Bandhu Chamar and Kolai Chauar have been acquitted. Owing to a somewhat narrow view which the learned Judge has taken of the numerous confessions in this case, these two must consider themselves somewhat fortunate to have escaped. The murder was a most cold-blooded and brutal one of the village patwari and the usual difficulty was experienced in getting direct evidence of guilt in a small village where an unpopular person has been got rid of, and the community probably think that a maximum of one culprit, who will probably be hung, is sufficient to answer the death of one victim. There is no doubt that there was ample motive and that the patwari was living, like the Czar of Russia used to do, on a sort of volcano. His house had been burnt down once, but he had not the courage to take notice of that trifling incident. His head had also been broken by some attack and altogether beseemed to be the general target for every body in the village and there can be no question that he was done to death on this occasion on his return to the village and that his dead body was thrown into a well and that a change of policy was adopted and that the dead body was taken to an adjoining river which was in high flood and, although it was seen once floating, it has since disappeared. There is no doubt that he is dead and the Judge has satisfied himself on that point with an ingenious piece of evidence. The village maps, which this deceased patwari carried with him out of the village, were burnt in the village on the night of his disappearance. So that it is certain that he returned to the village and the maps being on cloth, although they had been charred black by the fire, the ink has come out white, and the division of the village into plots can still be distinctly traced on the charred remains and compared with a genuine map. In such a case as this, where the investigation is generally difficult, the evidence is very strong. Each of the persons mainly implicated, and almost certainly engaged in the murder, has made a sort of confession containing the usual halfhearted but damning admissions, and couched generally in language intended to create an impression that they were merely unwilling spectators. But as a matter of fact, certainly in the case of Mathura, the learned Judge has overlooked the fact that his own confession is enough to hang him and, therefore, is evidence against Lakhan. The learned Judge is not quite right in holding that because a confession is not a complete and detailed confession up to the hilt, it is inadmissible against a co-accused. But the other evidence against Lakhan and Mathura is really very strong. The learned Judge got into a difficulty. The evidence against Mathura is stronger than that against anybody else, and the Judge says two or three times in the course of his judgment that he is satisfied that he really planned the murder. The evidence of motive against Mathura is much stronger than against the other accused. He had just been dispossessed from a valuable and valued office which he had enjoyed for many years and had been dispossessed as the result of the patwari's action, and there was a village rumour that he was engaged in rivalry with the patwari for the illicit affections of some low class villager's wife. The assessors, of whom two were Brahmans, found Mathura not guilty but of course convicted the worthless Chamar. That seems to be considered quite the natural and reasonable consequence of trying a Brahman and a Chamar in the same tr