2015 (1) TMI 1384
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....hat the complainant on 9th April, 1998 had organised a "Jaagran" (night long prayer meet) near a well belonging to one Magga Ram. The complainant and other relatives, in all around 50 persons assembled for the "Jaagran" that continued till late night. This included his seven year old daughter-Kamala who went to sleep along with other children close to the place where the "Jaagran" was held. When he returned to his house he noticed that Kamala was missing. Assuming that she may have gone away with one of the relatives, a search was made at their houses but Kamala remained untraceable. The search was then extended to neighbouring areas where the dead body of Kamala was discovered by Magga Ram (PW-5) and Pura Ram. On receipt of this information he and Naina Ram (PW-2) went to the place and found that baby Kamala had been raped and killed by crushing her head with a stone. The dead body of Kamala was, according to the report, lying on the spot. 3. A case under Sections 302 and 376 of the IPC was registered on the basis of the above information and investigation started which led to the arrest of the appellant and eventually a charge sheet against him before the jurisdictional magistra....
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....ch Kamala his daughter was present and gone off to sleep nor is there any reason to disbelieve the story that even the appellant was present at the "Jaagran" and had tea with other witnesses around mid night. 7. That Kamala died a homicidal death was not seriously disputed either before the Courts below or before us and rightly so because the statement of doctor Omprakash Kuldeep (PW-18) who conducted the post-mortem and authored the report marked as Ex. P-34 has clearly opined that Kamala died a homicidal death on account of injury on her head. In the deposition, the doctor certified injuries even on her private parts. The post-mortem report certifies the following injuries on the person of the deceased: "1. Face crushed. 2. Upper lip wad cut. Bleeding was from right ear, dried seminal stains on right and left thigh. 3. Nose bone was depressed and fractured. 4. Fracture was on left orbital margin. 5. Fracture was in left temporal bone. 6. Fracture was in maxilla bone of left side. 7. Fracture in parietal bone and occipital bone of right side which was upto the base of skull. 8. Incise teeth of lower and upper (jaw) were broken. 9. Achaimoisis was present in Geni....
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....e of village near the well in which nearly 50 people participated including Kamala the deceased child. (2) The deceased-Kamala had gone out to sleep after dinner around mid night. (3) The appellant was also participating in the "Jaagran" and was seen sitting along with some of the prosecution witnesses. (4) Kamala-deceased was found missing in the morning but upon search her dead body was noticed at some distance in the village in a naked condition with injuries on her private parts and her head smashed with a stone lying nearby. (5) The appellant made a disclosure statement leading to the recovery of his blood stained clothes. (6) The blood was found to be of human origin and belonging to group 'A" which also was the blood group of the deceased-Kamala. (7) The appellant on medical examination was found to have several injuries on his body including injury on his penis. (8) The injuries found on the person of the appellant were said to be 3 to 5 days old. (9) The appellant did not offer any explanation for the injuries on his body. 11. The above circumstances, in our opinion, form a complete chain and lead to an irresistible conclusion that the appellant was re....
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.... years. 4. Ventral 7 Dorsal margins of pubic symphysis are completely defined 7 there are no granular appearance on it, it suggests his age is below 36 years. Opinion:- Concluding all the above radiological findings, dental & Clinical appearance, the age of Darga Ram @ Gunga S/o Heera is in between 30 years to 36 years and the average age of Darga Ram @ Gunga S/o Heera is about 33 years on the date of examination. Enclosure:- X Ray (8 plates) & CT Scan 4 Plates) as above. Sd/- Sd/- Sd/- (Dr. L. Raichandani) (Dr. A.L.Chauhan) (Dr. P.C. Vyas) Professor, Anatomy PHOD, Radiodiagnosis PHOD, forensic Medicine Dr. S.N. Medical College Dr. S.N. Medical College Dr. S.N. Medical College Jodhpur Jodhpur Jodhpur" 13. It is evident from the opinion tendered by the Board that the appellant's age has been placed in the range of 30 to 36 years. The Board appears to have taken the average of two extremitees and concluded that the appellant's age on the date of the examination was about 33 years. It was on the basis of this estimate that Mr. Panjwani contended that the appellant should have been around 14 years, 2 months and 7 days old if his age was 30 years....
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....matter advances made in that field. That being so in terms of Rule 12 (3) (b) the appellant may even be entitled to benefit of fixing his age on the lower side within a margin of one year in case the Court considers it necessary to do so in the facts and circumstances of the case. The need for any such statutory concession may not however arise because even if the estimated age as determined by the Medical Board is taken as the correct/true age of the appellant he was just about 17 years and 2 months old on the date of the occurrence and thus a juvenile within the meaning of that expression as used in the Act aforementioned. Having said that we cannot help observing that we have not felt very comfortable with the Medical Board estimating the age of the appellant in a range of 30 to 36 years as on the date of the medical examination. The general rule about age determination is that the age as determined can vary plus minus two years but the Board has in the case at hand spread over a period of six years and taken a mean to fix the age of the appellant at 33 years. We are not sure whether that is the correct way of estimating the age of the appellant. What reassures us about the esti....




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