Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

3. At about 10.00 A.M. on 18-4-1968 i.e. about a week after the letter Ext. 24 was received by the accused, there was a quarrel between the mother-in-law Nathi Bai and Sharda. We do not know the nature of the quarrel But it was not a serious one. One of the witnesses Bhuderlal P.W. 5 described it as the usual quarrel which takes place in many houses which are joint. That witness P.W. 5 and Bai Tara who came there on hearing the quarrel advised them not to quarrel and the matter ended there. At about 1.00 p m. neighbours heard cries and shrieks from the house of the accused and ran to the place. They saw a ghastly sight there. In the hindmost room which is also described as the second room in the judgment of the High Court, Sharda had fallen on the ground naked with burns all over her body. She was in great pain but perfectly conscious. The neighbours who came there asked her what had happened and she told them that the three accused had sprinkled kerosene on her clothes and set them on fire. A large crowed had collected and one of them was Amritlal Manga Lal, P.W. 1, Amritlal was a relation. He was related to Lallubhai, accused No. 1, as his brother's son and he was also related to Sharda who was the daughter of the maternal uncle of Amritlal's wife. On hearing what the girl had stated within their hearing, the Sarpanch of the village, Dharam Chand, P.W. 3 prepared statement Ext. 10 and the same was signed by about 14 persons including P.W. 1 Amritlal. Neither the signature nor the thumb impression of Sharda could be taken below the writing because that was not possible as the palms of her hands were burnt. After signing the writing, Amritlal and some others left she village to fetch a Doctor and to inform the Police. Amritlal obtained a Jeep and went to the Police outpost at Chitroda which is two miles away. Some other persons went to the Medical Officer Dr. Keshavlal whose headquarters were also at Chitroda. Head Constable Samat Singh P.W. 19 was in charge of the Police outpost. On a statement made by Amritlal to him, he prepared an occurrence report Ext. 9 to the effect that the three accused had, after beating Bai Sharda, sprinkled kerosene on her body and set fire to her clothes. The occurrence report was signed by P.W. 1 Amritlal who was instructed by the Head Constable to proceed to the Police Station at Jadar which was about 10/12 miles away. The Head Constable there-after proceeded to village Poshina.

4. In the meantime Dr. Keshavlal P.W. 15 having learnt that Bai Sharda had received burns, came to Poshina in a Jeep. He reached the house of the accused at about 4 15 P.M. He directly went to the place where Sharda was lying. On seeing the Doctor, Sharda implored him loudly 'save me, Save me'. He noticed that her body had been extensively burnt and the case was very serious. He casually asked her as to how she got burnt. Thereupon she told him that she was burnt by her father in law Lallubhai, mother-in-law Bai Nathi and brother-in'law Jayantilal after sprinkling kerosene on her. He carried out whatever medical examination was possible and since the case was serious he recommended that she be taken to the Civil Hospital at Himatnagar, By this time, Head Constable Samat Singh had also arrived at that place. He also noticed that Sharda had extensive burn on her body and she was quite conscious and able to speak. He asked her what had happened and, according to the witness, she told him that her husband had contracted a second marriage and that her father-in-law, mother-in-law and brother-in-law had burnt her after sprinkling kerosene on her. At the instance of the Medical Officer Dr. Keshavlal, he then took Sharda to the Civil Hospital round about 6.00 p m. Her condition at that time was very bad. She was speaking in a very low voice and it was not possible to follow her. He started giving treatment to her and intimated the Police Section at Himatnagar to arrange for recording her dying declaration. Before the police could arrive, Sharda expired at 6.35 p.m. In due course Dr. Pandya performed the post-mortem examination. The results noticed by him were as follows.

6. The principal evidence against the accused consisted of the dying declarations made by Sharda from time to time. First there was the dying declaration recorded as per Ext. 10 by the Sarpanch Dharam Chand P.W. 3. It was signed by no less than 14 persons who had come to the place immediately after hearing Sharda's cries. The second time when Sharda made the statement was when Dr. Keshavlal questioned her. He had prepared rough notes at the time which he later transferred to the case papers Ext. 38, prepared the same day. Ext. 38 records the statement made by her to the effect that Sharda's father-in-law, mother-in-law and brother-in-law had sprinkled kerosene on her and "set on fire". The third dying declaration is to be found in the statement of the Head Constable Samatsingh, P.W 19 who says that when he asked Sharda as to what had happened, she told him that her husband had contracted a second marriage and her mother-in-law Bai Nathi, father-in-law Lallubhai and brother in-law Jayantilal had burnt her after sprinkling kerosene on her. The second and the Third declarations have been proved by Dr. Keshavlal and Head Constable Samat Singh respectively and Dr Keshavlal produced Ext. 38 the case papers, in corroboration of his evidence. With regard to the first dying declaration Ext. 10 which was prepared by the neighbours who had come to the house on hearing the cries, no less than six persons out of the 14 persons who were signatories to the statement, were e-xamined. Most of them deliberately avoided supporting the prosecution P.W. 1 Amritlal who had signed the statement and had also made his report at the outpost in accordance with that statement turned hostile and denied having heard the dying declaration or even having made the report Ext. 9 which he had signed. Sarpanch Dharam Chand P.W. 3 though admitting that he had recorded the statement and signed it along with the others gave a twist in the course of evidence suggesting thereby that the had prepared the report on what the ladies questioned and as it Sharda had told him. In these circumstances the learned Sessions Judge held that Ext. 10 was inadmissible in evidence. At the same time he held that the first dying declaration had been duly proved by P.W. 4 Ravashankar who did not disclose any disposition to turn hostile. Ravashankar stated that when he was returning home at about 1 00 p.m., he heard a noise at the house of the accused and so he went there. There were many persons including the females and the sarpanch. Sharda was lying in the second room The females were questioning Sharda and within his hearing Sharda said that she had been burnt by the accused. The Sarpanch prepared Ex'. 10 and he also signed it, though in his cross-examination he admitted that he had not read it before signing because it was prepared on the basis of what they had heard from Sharda. The learned Sessions Judge found that this witness and he had no difficulty in holding that Sharda had nude a statement soon after she was burnt implicating the accused as the persons who had burnt her after sprinkling kerosene on her body.

7. Apart from denying that they had set fire to the clothes of Sharda and pleading not guilt, no consistent defence was put forward by the accused.

8. The burning could have been either homicidal or accidental. Accident was ruled out by the fact that even at the time of the post-mortem, there was smell of kerosene and there was no possibility of Sharda being burnt by accidentally catching fire in the second room because the kitchen was far from the place and the room was used merely as a store room. Accident was not also suggested before us. There can be, therefore, no doubt that death was homicidal The High Court has further noticed that in the Sessions Court it did not appear to have been suggested that death was suicidal, but the agreement was advanced in the High Court that it was quite likely that Sharda might have committed suicide by sprinkling kerosene on her clothes and setting fire to herself the reason being that she had been discarded by her husband, she was issueless and she had nothing to look forward in her life, her husband having married a second time.