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1971 (11) TMI 178

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....ter erecting a temporary shed thereon, leased it out to a tenant by name Abhiman Mahar. After some time, the tenant was evicted and then the deceased installed a fodder cutting machine in that shed. 3. Appellant Ram Gopal deals in fodder and thus developed contacts with the deceased. He was living that time near the Panchpaoli Police Station for about a year before the offence. He became friendly with the deceased. The accused is a family man with a wife, one daughter and three sons. The appellant frequently visited the house of the deceased. 4. The deceased Zingrooji wanted cash for the education of his sons and to finance his business. He put up the plot, purchased by him, for sale and the appellant offered to purchas it for Rs. 10,000/-On December 5, 1967 Tulsabai, at the instance of the deceased, executed a registered sale deed for Rs. 10,000/-in the Office of the Sub-Registrar Nagpur. The document showed that the amount of consideration of Rs. 10,000/-had been already received. After the execution of the sale deed, the necessary mutations were made in the Municipal and Improvement Trust records in favour of the appellant and possession was delivered to the appellant imme....

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.... after telephoning to the Police Station, went to the Police Station The message given, by the appellant on the phone was received at about 9.10 A.M. by the Head Constable in-charge of Panchapaoli Police Station and was duly recorded in the Station Diary. Immediately another Head Constable Ganeshlal Ramlal accompanied by the appellant left for the house of the appellant. There he saw the deceased lying on the cot in a morhibund condition. Ganeshlal Ramlal immediately arranged to send Zingrooji to the Hospital. But by the time they reached the Hospital, Zingrooji was dead. His death was reported immediately to the Police Station. 7. Head Constable Ganeshlal who had remained behind after sending the deceased to the Mayo Hospital examined the spot and the surroundings where the deceased was found lying unconscious. Ganeshlal noticed vomit of the deceased near the cot. He, therefore, made a panchnama and collected the vomit for analysis. The appellant produced the tumbler in which he had served water to the deceased. There was some water still left in it. The tumbler and the water were attached for analysis. 8. P.S.I. Dongre noticed at about 11.00 A.M. that there was an entry in ....

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....ed : 1. That the deceased had a grievance against the appellant because he had paid the consideration for the sale deed and while the deceased was pressing him for the money the appellant was merely giving him empty promises. 2. That the appellant had called him that morning for the purpose of collecting money. 3. That the deceased was hale and hearty and had not taken any food or drink bf fore he left his house and reached the house of the appellant at about 8.00 A.M. or sometime later. 4. That about 8.30 A.M. the appellant offered the deceased a cup with a saucer the contents of which were swallowed by the deceased. 5. After the deceased drank the contents from the cup, the deceased became restless and started rolling on the cot. Soon thereafter be became unconscious. 6. According to medical evidence an organo Chloro compound may cause death from between 20 minutes to four hours. The deceased had died on the way to the Mayo Hospital a little after 9.30 A.M. 7. The contents of the viscera showed that it contained organo chloro compound which is a deadly poison. 8. That conduct of the appellant immediately afte....

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....f Punjab Criminal Appeal No. 98 of 1258 decided on 4-11-1958 dealing with a case of poisoning observed that where the evidence is circumstantial the fact that the accused had motive to cause death of the deceased, though relevant, is not enough to dispense with the proof of certain facts which are essential to be proved in such cases Three questions arise in such cases namely (firstly), did the deceased die of the poison in question ? (secondly), had the accused the poison in question in his possession and (thirdly), had the accused an opportunity to administer the poison in question to the deceased? It is only when the motive is there and these facts are all proved that the court may be able to draw the inference, that the poison was administered by the accused to the deceased resulting in his death. 17. We shall first deal with the motive part of the accused. On this part of the case, there is the evidence of Tulsabai P.W.I Ansuabai, P.W. 2&Jangloo, P.W. 3 Govindarao Ghavghava, P.W. 7. The sale deed of 5-12-1957 is at Ext. 5. The consideration of Rs. 10,000/-was admittedly not paid before the Sub-Registrar at the time of the registration. But the sale deed specifically mention....

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....out the alleged non payment, but thought that the deceased had a grievance that he had not been paid. For this reliance was placed on the evidence of Ansuyabai, P.W. 2 whose fodder cutting machine was not far way from the house of the appellant. Only an open piece of land divides the two. She says that she had seen Zingrooji frequently coming to the appellant and he had told her that he had not received the price of the plot from the appellant. She also says that the appellant Ram Gopal had also told her that he had not paid the price of the plot to the deceased. One doubts whether the appellant would tell her that he had not paid the price. Suggestions have been made in the cross-examination that she was not on good terms with the appellant and though the suggestions have been denied, the detailed manner in which she has tried to support the prosecution case against the appellant on every point makes her evidence subject. Jangloo the other witness, as it will be seen later on, is not also reliable witness. According to him the source of his knowledge that the amount of sale deed had not been paid, was Zingrooji himself. It is on the evidence of such witnesses that the High Court c....

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....i were pursuing their claim to the sale price, one doubts very much whether there is any truth in the allegation that the sale price had not been received by Tulsabai. In any case, if motive as a circumstance is put forward in a criminal case, it must like any other incriminating circumstance be fully established. It is not possible to hold having regard to the probabilities of the ca c that the motive alleged by the prosecution is fully established. 18. Even assuming that the amount had not been paid by the appellant, we do not think that it can be a motive for the crime. The claim, if true, would not disappear with Zingrooji's death. The sale deed was executed by Tulsabai and she could always make the claim against the appellant. There vas no obvious advantage in doing away with Zingrooji, because Tulsabai and her grown up children were quite capable of making a demand as they have actually done after the death of Zingrooji and, hence, there can be no reasonable motive for the murder of Zingrooji. 19. The evidence with regard to the alleged administration of poison has left many gaps in the case. There is no evidence whatsoever that the appellant had any Organo Chloro c....

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....lying upon the Clinical Handbook on Economic Poison (U.S. Department of Health, Education & Welfare Public Health Service), he stated that vomiting is uncommon in ondrin. He could not give his opinion whether in the case of other organo chloro compounds there would be vomiting or not. He then cited the passage from the above hand-book which related to an episode where contaminated bread has been eaten. The results noticed were mild illness involving dizginess, weakness of the legs, abdominal discomfort and nausea but usually not vomiting. It is on this passage that the Doctor relied for his opinion that vomiting is uncommon in endrin. He, however, admitted that if the person who was administered organo chloro compound in a liquid form and if he immediately vomits, then there would be traces of that compound in the vomit. He also admitted that he would not be able to say exactly after what time the reaction would start because one does not have the data about the exact administration of the drug and the starting of the symptoms in human beings. Though in his earlier statement before the Trial Court, he had said that he was not sure whether pesticides are soluble in kerosene, before ....

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....the mean lethal dose for man to be between 150 and 600 mg. per Kilogram body weight and the accepted view seems to be that it was more likely to be nearer the maximum figure, that is 600 mg. per Kilogram depending to some extent upon the solvent used. Taylor has reported the case of a market gardener's labourer who had drunk a concentrated emulsion of D.D.T. who was found dead within an hour as in the present case. The autopsy of that labourer showed that there was 6 ounces residue found in the stomach. The residue contained 20 per cent D.D.T in methyl-cyclohexanene and the amount of D.D.T. swallowed was estimated at 34 mg. which was the equivalent of 500 mg. per Kilogram bodyweight. Two things are apparent from this case One is that if a person dies within about on hour of the administration of the poison, the residue would be found in the stomach at the time of autopsy and secondly about 34 gms. of D.D.T. would require to be swallowed in order to cause death within one hour. Indeed Constitutions vary and more or less lethal dose may be necessary in particular cases for causing death. But there can be no doubt that a large quantity of poison in emulsion form would have to be i....

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....pellant. It would mean that the chloro compound, if any, must have been already there in the stomach before the tea was taken. 23. Even the oral evidence with regard to the administration of the tea in a cup and saucer does not appear to be convincing. The important witness is Jangloo, P.W. 3. He had accompanied the deceased but was watching from a distance. In his examination-in-chief, he stated that while sitting by the side of the road, he saw the daughter of the accused going out with a pot and returning with the pot and handing it over to the appellant. He thought that it contained milk. Then the appellant went inside the house. Thereafter the deceased went inside the court yard and sat on the Khatla (cot). The appellant came out and sat in a chair near the Khatla. When they were talking, the wife of the appellant brought a cup placed in a saucer and handed it over to the appellant. The appellant offered the same to the deceased. The deceased then drank it, which according to the witness, must have been tea. Immediately, after drinking it, according to the witness, the deceased became restless and he saw the wile of the appellant fetching a tumbler of water. She the tumbler....

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....e evidence in the case on all conceivable points which are damaging the accused. She has even spoken about the financial condition of the appellant. The witness, however, did not notice how her evidence with regard to the occasion which brought her near the appellant's house in self-contradictory. She was engaged in unloading the truck of fodder some distance away from that place. She could not have seen what was happening in the appellant's house. If the appellant was quietly offering the cup of tea and the deceased was drinking it, she could not have heard the loud exchange of words between the appellant and the deceased. So she invented the story that she heard loud exchange of talk between the appellant and the deceased from which she got the impression that they were quarreling. Even Jangloo does not say that they were quarreling in the nature of things, if the appellant intended to quietly administer poison he would not have raised a quarrel to attract the noise others. Therefore, the story of loud exchange of words and quarreling was deliberately invented by this woman to account for her presence at the house of the appellant. We do not think that in a case of murder....