Document Fragment View
Matching Fragments
17. Adverting to the case in hand, the prosecution version as brought on record through the testimony of PW1, PW2, PW3, PW4 & PW5 reveals that Radha was murdered by strangulation. The defence version, on the other hand, is that the deceased Radha committed suicide by self strangulation with the help of a chunni. It is pertinent to note that various suggestions were given to the prosecution witnesses during course of their grilling cross-examination, however, no suggestion was given to any of the prosecution witnesses that Radha committed suicide. Rather the suggestions were to the effect that Radha was examined by doctor from Dr. Anita‟s clinic who declared that she suffered a heart attack and she should be moved to hospital; she was being taken to the hospital in a TSR but was prevented by the family members of the deceased from doing so; Prakash Chand, father of the deceased rubbed something on her neck.
22. The Apex Court in Godabarish Mishra vs. Kuntala Mishra and Anr., (1996) 11 SCC 264 held that suicide by self strangulation is a rare incident. Both in Modi's Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology and in Taylor's Principles and Practice of Medical Jurisprudence, it has been clearly indicated that suicide by self strangulation is very rare. For committing suicide by self strangulation, the person committing suicide must take aid of a contrivance so as to ensure application of sufficient force until death by strangulation. Without such contrivance, sufficient force cannot be applied because initially with the application of force, insensitivity will develop for which the hands pulling the ends of the string must get loosened.
23. No specific suggestion was given to any of the prosecution witnesses that Radha committed suicide by self strangulation. Dr. L.T. Ramani who conducted post-mortem on the dead body of deceased observed presence of ligature mark. The extent to which they were caused on the neck reflected use of external force. In cross- examination, general questions were put regarding self strangulation and the doctor deposed that self strangulation is a rare phenomena where a person strangulates himself with the help of some ligature material by means of tying the ligature with some hook but the same is not possible manually by the deceased himself. Cases of self strangulation have been described in books but it is very rare and in his career of 23 years wherein he performed more than 20,000 post- mortems, he did not come across a single case of self strangulation. No specific suggestion was put to the doctor that Radha strangulated herself. Had those questions been put to the witness, he would have been in a position to explain whether it was a case of self strangulation or not. But intentionally such questions were not put to the doctor in cross-examination, thereby leaving the plea of the accused as only a figment of his imagination. It was not humanly possible for the deceased to tie a chunni on her neck by lying down on the cot and then to tie both the ends of chunni to the legs of the cots on both sides. Self strangulation as suggested by the accused is quite improbable and such a plea seems to have been taken by the accused in order to save himself from the charge of committing the murder of Radha. Except the accused, no other person had any opportunity whatsoever to cause the murder of the deceased. The circumstantial evidence in this case are absolutely clinching in establishing the complicity of the accused in committing the murder of the deceased.
36. In the earlier part of the judgment, we have given a resume of the evidence which is available on record. There are allegations regarding the harassment to the deceased on account of non-fulfilment of payment of Rs.40,000/- although the same were not relied upon by the learned Trial Court being vague and unspecific. After Radha had been murdered, information was sent to her parents that she had suffered a heart attack. The factual position, however, showed that she had strangulation marks on her neck and the medical evidence proved that she had died on account of asphyxia due to strangulation. The body of the deceased was purposely removed from the scene of crime. A false plea has been taken by the appellant in his statement under Section 313 Cr.P.C. that it was a case of self strangulation which was however, not proved. On the contrary, there was blood on the clothes of the deceased and the bed sheet. The crime team report (Ex.PW17/DA) shows that there was blood on the bed sheet. The report of chemical analysis Ex. PW17/K also proved that there was blood on the lady‟s shirt, brassiere, salwar, bed sheet and the blood group was that of group „A‟ which was the blood group of deceased Radha. In the death report Ex.PW17/K there is a mention against column 19 that there was injury under right eye. Blood was also noted trickling from the nostrils by Dr. L.T. Ramani who had conducted the post-mortem as is evident from the report Ex. PW13/A. The presence of blood on the clothes of the deceased and bed sheet reflects that there was struggle/resistance by Radha as a result of which she received injuries. PW1, PW2, PW4 and PW5 have also noted froth coming from the mouth of deceased Radha. The circumstances enumerated above unerringly point to the guilt of the accused and they are inconsistent with his innocence.