Paragraph numbers below are the court’s original numbering, recovered from the source text.
1. The death of Madhu Bala had occurred at the residential house of the appellant.
2. The appellant was not happy with the dowry brought by Madhu Bala at the time of marriage and had motive to get rid of Madhu Bala who B instead of forcing her parents to give articles demanded by the accused, had sent her relations to prevail upon him to withdraw the demand and accused also had given promise of treating her properly in future. This aspect of the case is well established by the evidence of P. W. 4 Brij Bhushan. Nothing has been brought out in his cross-examination to falsify his version. c
3. A false version was given by the appellant before the police that Madhu Bala had died by committing suicide. That version is completely falsified by medical evidence of Dr. Jagdish Gargi, P.W.1. Dr. Gargi in his evidence stated that there is normally trickling of the saliva from the angle D of the mouth of the deceased which stains the cloths of the deceased. He had specifically observed the cloths worn by the deceased in this case. He found no stains of saliva on the body of the deceased. This version could not be effectively challenged in the cross-examination of this witness. It is also pertinent to note that a young girl of 24 years, mother of an infant of two and a half months having allegedly taken half a bottle of liquor could E not have remained in senses to hang herself later on by self-strangulation. The entire defence version to say the least was preposterous and violated all basic norms of probabilities and was an affront to common sense.
Once the theory of suicide is ruled out it has to be held that deceased died a homicidal death in the residence of appellant who himself is a practising F doctor. The medical evidence and the report of the Chemical Examiner clearly show that deceased Madhu Bala lost her life as a result of administration of organophosphorus compound mixed with alcohol. It is required to be noted that Madhu Bala who was a young Brahmin girl aged 24 and who had recently given birth to a male child who was two and a half months old, is found to have consumed half a bottle of liquor which G contained the mixture of organophosphorus compound. The Chemical Examiner's Report showed that the blood alcohol concentration was estimated as 322 mgms/100 mis and, therefore, on a rough estimate the deceased could be said to have consumed about 400 cc of alcohol. Such type of does would not have been voluntarily taken by her but would have H been administered the does. MANGATRAI v. STATE [S.B. MATMUDAR,J.]
4. The Chemical Examiner's Report also shows that once that A organophosphorus compound along with 400 cc of alcohol was administered to the deceased, the concentration of said compound went to such a high degree that it travelled in the blood stream and poison was detected in her blood sample no. IV which was a sealed bottle containing blood of the deceased. Thus it could easily be seen that sufficient quantity B of poison was administered to the deceased so that it could enter her blood stream and result in her death. Under these circumstances it is not possible to agree with the contention of learned senior counsel for the appellant that the prosecution had failed to bring home to the accused the charge of having administered sufficient quantity of poison which could prove fatal. In fact it has proved fatal.
5. The administration of poison to the deceased could not be treated by way of accident or a voluntary act on her part as she by herself would have no occasion to commit suic\de leaving her male son of two and a half months in the lurch.
6. It is also well established that the appellant was a medical practitioner having two clinics. Therefore he had every facility and opportunity coupled with the knowledge that the lethal dose of huge quantity of poison which by itself was very pungent Was required to be diluted by mixing it up with alcohol before it could be administered to E anyone.
7. The two ante-mortem injuries detected by the doctors on the body of the deceased clearly indicated that she had resisted before the in-take of aforesaid quantity of alcohol mixed with poison. In this connection Dr. Gargi stated that he could not rule out the possibility of these injuries being F result of a scuffle if the deceased resisted the administration of alcohol or organophosphorus compound. Consequently the aforesaid circumstances clearly proved that death of Madhu Bala was result of administration of alcohol and adequate quantity of organophosphorus compound which proved fatal.
8. The accused had created a false evidence of hanging by rushing to the police on the same night of the incident which obviously was an attempt to side-track the investigating agency. This was a strong indicator about his guilty mind. Furnishing such false information to the police about the cause of death inevitable pointed to his guilt.
9. His subsequent conduct of not immediately informing his in-laws and relatives of the deceased and his absconding from the scene of offence for couple of days till he was ultimately arrested which conduct though by itself might not be conclusive, becomes a clinching circumstance in the light of the aforesaid tell-tale pre-existing circumstances well established on B record and which clearly point an accusing finger to the appellant and no one else.
10. In the household of the appellant apart from his wife, the deceased and the co-accused, his mother who is acquitted, there was his younger brother who in no circumstances could be alleged to have C committed this heinous crime. By a process of elimination, therefore, it was appellant-doctor who being dissatisfied with his in-laws and with his wife can be said to have liquidated her. All the aforesaid circumstances, therefore, must be trP,ated to have represented a complete chain of circumstantial evidence leading to the D inevitable conclusion that it was the accused and no one else who was responsible for this heinous crime which deprived a young woman of 24 years of her life at 'the threshold of existence and also in turn deprived a two and a half months old infant of his mother. Consequently there is no escape from the conclusion that the prosecution has brought home to the E appellant-accused the charge of murdering his wife beyond shadow of any reasonabfe doubt. In the result this appeal fails and is dismissed. R.K.S. Appeal dismissed.