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PETITIONER: DARYAO SINGH

       Vs.

RESPONDENT: STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

DATE OF JUDGMENT15/02/1991

BENCH: AHMADI, A.M. (J) BENCH: AHMADI, A.M. (J) RAMASWAMI, V. (J) II

CITATION:  1991 SCR  (1) 455        1991 SCC  (2) 588  JT 1991 (1)   465

ACT:      Indian Penal Code--Sections 34 and 302--Murder--Time of death--Blisters  appearing  on body--How far  evidences  the date and time of death.

HEADNOTE:      The appellant has been convicted under Section  302/34, Indian Penal Code, by the high Court, for the murder of  one Nagji,  with whom he had strained relations.   According  to the  prosecution there was bad blood between the  family  of the appellant  and the deceased and there have incidents  in the  past,  the  last being the murder of two  sons  of  the appellant  and inflicting of grievous injuries on the  third son,  by the deceased, in which case, the deceased  and  his companions were acquitted.  The appellant was keen to avenge the  deaths of his sons and with that end in view,  on  25th Septemeber,  1970,  he along with three others,  duly  armed with guns and sticks, attacked the deceased, Negji, while he along  with  his  son PW4 was working  in  his  field.   The deceased Negji raised an alarm which attacted the  attention of  PW  1 and PW 3, who were working in the  adjacent  field. They reached the spot and withnessed the incdent.  On  thier raising  hue and cry, the appellant and his companions  fled away  PW 4 had run away frightened when a shot was fired  at him.   The deceased Nagaji received serious injuries on  the head  and his leg was cut into two peices. PWs 1 and 3  went in  search of PW 4 and on the way met two police  constables PW 8 and PW 10 to whom they narrated the whole incident  and disclosed the names of the assailants.  The deceased  passed away,  when his body was being taken to the police  station. The  postmortem examination was performed on the 27th  at  7 a.m.   The  appellant was put up for trial, as  others  were abscondng.   The learned trial Judge n appreciation  of  the prosecution  evidence  held that having regard to  the  long standing  enmity between the two families, it was  hazardous to place implict reliance on the interested testimony of PWs 1,3  and  4,  more  so  because  their  testimony  was   not corroborated   in   material  particulars   by   independent evidence.   The Trial Judge applying the rule  of  prudence, did not convict the appellant on uncorroborated evidence  of interest withnesses and accordigly acquitted the  appellant. The State preferred an appeal to the -

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                                                      456 High  Court.   The High Court held that although  the  three prosecution witnesses were closely related to the  deceased, their  evidence could not be discards solely on  the  ground they were interested and partisan witnesses.  The High Court found   their  evidence  duly  corroborated  and   therefore reversed and order of acquittal and convicted the  appellant under  Section 302/34, I.P.C.  In this appeal the  appellant had  challenged his conviction.  Apart from the question  of appraisal  of  evidence,the  appellants  has  placed  strong reliance on the testimony of PW 2, Dr. Sharma and argued for the first time in the Court that his testimony shws that the death  must  have taken place long  before  25the  September 1970--there being blisters containing reddish fluid all over the body.      Dismissing the appeal, this Court,      HELD: Death had occurred on 25th September 1970 and the dead-body law in the police station with the wounds  exposed till it was brought to the hospital at 5.20 p.m. on the next day.   The  body  remained  in the  same  condition  in  the hospital till 7.00 a.m. on the next day when the  post-mortem examination  was undertaken.  The body thus  remained  fully exposed  to the heat and humidity of the month of  September for  over thirty hours and hence it is not  surprising  that the  rigor  mortis had passed off.  Ordinarily  after  rigor mortis  has passed off, the process of putrefaction sets  in but  it may set in even earlier during summer  depending  on the heat and humidity.[462A-C]      The  evidence establishes the chain of  events  showing the movement of the dead body and rules out the theory  that death had taken place many days before 25th September  1970, a   theory   not   put   to   the   witnesses   in    corss- examination.[462H-463]      Blisters appear after the process of decomposition sets in within eighteen to forty-eight hours.  It shows that  the existence of blisters does not mean that death had taken  14 to 20 days ago.[464B]

JUDGMENT:      CRIMINAL  APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Criminal  Appeal  No. 480 of 1979.      From  the  Judgment  and Order dated  3.4.1979  of  the Madhya  Pradesh  High Court in Criminal Appeal  No.  239  of 1974.      R.C. Kohli for the Appellant.      U.N.  Bachawat  and  Uma Nath Sing  with  him  for  the Respondent.                                                        457      The Judgement of the Court was delivered by      AHMADI,J.  The  appellant  has  been  convicted   under Section  302/34, IPC, for causing the murder of  one  Negji, son   of  the  Parthesingh,  of  village   Melakhedi.    The prosecution  case was that the family of the  appellant  and the  family of the deceased were at loggerheads since  quite sometime  and  there was bad blood between them.   In  1967, Bhowansingh, a member of the complainant’s family is  stated to have been murdered by the appellant’s party.   Thereupon, the  deceased  along with others is stated to  have  fatally assaulted   Bhagwansingh  and  Bahadursingh  and   inflicted grievous  injuries of Govardhansingh.  These three are  none other than the sons of the appellant.  The deceased and  his companions  were,  however,  acquitted.   It  is  said   the appellant,  Daryao Singh was, therefore, keen to avenge  the

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deaths of his sons. As a sequel to the earlier incident,  it is  said  that  the incident in question  occurred  on  25th September,  1970 at about 4.00 p.m. The fact that  relations between the two families were strained is, therefore, not in dispute.      On  25th  September,  1970, the  deceased,  Negji,  was working in his field along with his son PW 4--Bhanwar Singh. At  that  time the appellant went there in  the  company  of Nagusingh Govardhansingh and Bapusingh.  Nagusingh was armed with   a   gun  and  a  stick  with   dharia   like   blade, Govardhansingh   was  armed  with  a  similar  weapon,   the appellant  was armed with a sword and Bapusingh possessed  a gun. They lanuched an attack on the deceased Negji whereupon the the latter raised an alarm which attracted the attention of Pw 1--Bherusingh and Pw 3--Bhuwan Singh, who were working in the adjacent filed.  They reached the spot and  witnessed the incident.  On their raising a hue and cry, the appellant and his companions fled away.  PW 4 had run away  frightened when  a  shot  was  fired  at  him.   The  deceased,  Negji, sustained serious injuries on the head and his right leg was cut into two.  PWs 1 and 3 went in search of PW 4 but on the way  met two police constables PW 8--Chhotelal and  PW  10-- Itratkhan.   They  narrated the incident and  disclosed  the names  of the assailants to them.  All the four returned  to the  place  of  occurrence,  placed  Negji  in  a  cart  and proceeded towards the police station. But the injured passed away  on the way.  The dead body appears to have been  taken to the hospital on the next day at about 5.20 p.m. PW 2--Dr. Sharma,  performed  the  post-mortem  examination  on   27th September, 1970 at about 7.00 a.m.  Except the appellant the rest  of  the assailants could not be put to trial  as  they were reportedly absonding.                                                         458      The prosecution mainly relies on the evidence of PW 1,3 and  4.   In addition, the prosecution  seeks  corroboration from the evidence of the two Police Constables PWs 8 and  10 whom the names of the assailants were disclosed  immediately after  the incident. PW 8, however, turned hostile  and  was permitted  to  be  cross-examined  by  the  learned   Public Prosecutor.   This,  in brief, is the  prosecution  evidence against the appellant.      The  learned  Trial  Judge on an  appreciation  of  the prosecutiion  evidence concluded that having regard  to  the long  standing  enmity  between  the  two  families  it  was hazardous  to  place  implicit reliance  on  the  interested testimony of PWs 1,3 and 4, more so because their  testimony was not corroborated in material particulars by  independent evidence.  Besides,  according  to  the  Trial  Judge,   the evidence of DW 3--Keshav Shanker Varang established that the appellant  was  a physically disabled person who  could  not have  weilded  the sword with such ferocity as  to  cut  the right  leg into two pieces.  To disbelieve  the  prosecution case the learned Trial Judge referrd to the evidence  of the hostile  Constable,  PW 8, but failed to take  note  of  the evidence or PW 10.  As the three eye-withnesses were closely related to the deceased, the learned Trial Judge applied the rule  of  prudence  and  thought  it  wise  not  to  base  a conviction on thier uncorroborated evidence.  He  therefore, acquitted the appellant.      Feeling  aggrieved by the order of acquittal passed  by the  learnd  Trial  Judge,  the  State   of  Madhya  Pradesh preferred an appeal of the High Court which was disposed  of by a Division bench by its impugned judgment and order dated 3rd, 1979.  The Division Bench held that although the  three prosecution  witnesses were closely related to the  deceased

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their  evidence could not be discarded solely on the  ground that  they were interested and partisan witnesses,  but  all that  the  rule of prudence demanded was to  evaluate  their evidence with caution.  On a close scrutiny of the  evidence of  the  said three witnesses, the Hight  Court  found  that nothing was brought out in their cross-examination to  doubt their credibility.  On the contrary the High Court felt that their evidence was partly corroborated by PW 10 and  medical evidence.   So far as the evidence of PW 8 is concerned  the High  Court  observed  that he had turned  hostile  and  had deliberately  departed  from his earlier  statement  to  the Police  as well as the entry in his police diary.   In  this view  of  the matter, the High Court reversed the  order  of acquittal   and  convicted  the  appellant   under   section 302/34, IPC.  It is this conviction which is assailed before us in this appeal by the appellant.                                                        459      The learned counsel for the appeallant took us  through the evidence of PWs 1,3 and 4. PWs 1 and 3 are the  brothers of the deceased and PW 4 is his son.  Indisputably there was bad  blood  between  the two families  on  account  of  past incidents  which may have ignited a desire for  vendatta  in the  appellant  and his companions.  At the same  time,  the High Court also cautioned itself to the possibility of false involvement  on  account of the long standing  enmity.   The Hight  Court then scrutinised the evidence of the  aforesaid three  witnesses and found that their evidence had  no  been shaken   by   elaborate  cross-examination.    That   means, according  to  both  the Courts, if their  evidence  can  be trusted   as  credible,  it  would  prove  the   appellant’s involvement  in the crime.  Therefore, if their evidence  is otherwise found to be reliable there can be no doubt that  a conviction  can be based on their evidence,  notwithstanding (i)  their close relations with the deceased, and  (ii)  the long standing enmity between the two families.  We too  have perused  their evidence and taken at its face value we  find no  infirmity.  Even the learned counsel for  the  appellant did  not  contend  that there was  any  intrinsic  infirmity in their evidence.  All that he submitted was that it  would be unwise to convict the appellant on their evidence without seeking corroboration.  Since PW 8 has deliberately departed from  his  earlier version and has not told the  truth   his evidence  cannot dilute their evidence.   Immediately  after the incident , while PWs 8 and 10 were passing by, they were informed  of  the incident and the names of  the  assailants were  disclosed  to  them,  in regard  to  which  they  made enteries  in  their respective diaries.   The  contradiction brought  on  record in the cross-examination of PW  8  shows that  the  names of the assailants were  disclosed  to  him. This was sought to be further reinforced by the entry in his diary  wherein the name of the appellant appeared as one  of the assailants.  The learned Trial Judge wrongly  attributed this  entry to the ingenuity of the  investigation  officer. It  is,  therefore, obvious that PW 8 is  not  a  dependable witness.   The  High Court’s conclusion in  this  behalf  is unassailable.  The learned Trial Judge made no reference  to the  evidence of PW 10.  The High Court has referred to  his testimony.  This witness stated that while he and PW 8  were passing  by, a frightened PW 1 approached them and  reported that  his  brother was assaulted by the  appellant  and  his companions. The High Court has accepted the testimony of the witness and we think rightly.  The evidence of the  witness, therefore,  lends corroboration to the  prosecution  version regarding   the   involvement  of   the   appellant.    This discloseure was made to PW 10 immediately after the incident

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before  there  was any time of deliberation  or  concoction. the medical evidence shows that the deceased had as many  as seven  injuries, one of which was on the skull.  the  number and nature of the-                                                   460 injuries  clearly  indicate that more than  one  person  was involved  in the assault.  It is, therefore, clear that  the medical evidence also lends corroboration to the prosecution version to this limited extent.      Strong  reliance  was, however, placed by  the  learned counsel  for  the  appellant on the evidence  of  PW  2--Dr. Sharma.   This  witness  has after  describing  the  various injuries  stated  that the body was cold, rigor  mortis  and passed off and the body was decomposed when he performed the post-mortem  examination on the morning of  27th  September, 1970.   He  also noticed blisters containing  reddish  fluid all  over  the body.  The abdomen was swollen  and  greenish discoloration was noticed.  In his opinion death was  caused on  account  of  the brain injury.  In paragraph  6  of  his deposition he stated "the duration of injury since death was 36 to 48 hours".  In cross-examination he said:           "As  the dead body was decomposed  externally  and          internally  blisters had formed all over the  body,          scrotum  distented,  marks  of  swelling  on  body,          presence  of magets on body; all these symptoms  do          indicate that their duration of injury since  death          could be 14 to 20 days also."      On the basis of these statements made by PW 2,  counsel for the appellant strongly argued that death must have taken place  long before 25th September, 1970 since  blisters  had appeared  on  the  body.   In  this  connection,  he  placed reliance  on the table found at page 134 of  Modi’s  Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology,(12th Edn.).  It read as under:      -------------------------------------------------------           Putrefactive changes                    Time      -------------------------------------------------------                                           1 to 3 days after      1.   Greenish coloration             death.           over the iliac fossae           The eyeballs, soft and           yielding.      2.    Green coloration spreading     3 to 6  days            over   the  whole  abdomen,    after death.            external genitals and other            parts of the body. Frothy            blood from mouth and nostrils.      3.   Abdomen distrended with gas.  Cornea 8 to 10  days           fallen in and concave. Pur-   after death.           lish red streaks of veins           prominent on the extremities,           Sphincters relaxed, Nails firm.                                                        461      4.   Body greenish-brown. Blisters      14 to 20 days           froming all over the body. Skin    after death.           peels off.  Features unrecogniz-           able.  Scrotum distension. Body           swallow up owing to distorsiopn           Maggots on the body.  Nails and           hair loose and easily detached.      5.    Soft  parts changed into a thick, semi-  2 to 5           fluid,  black mass.  Skull, abdomen and    months           thorax  burst.  Bones exposed.   Orbits   after           empty.                                    death.       _______________________________________________________      It is indeed suprising that no such submission was made

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on  behalf of defence before the Trial Court as well as  the High  Court.   Even in the memo of appeal  no  such  precise contention  appears.  Hoeever, we have thought it proper  to examine the submission on merits rather than reject it on  a technical ground.      Counsel  of  the  appellant  strongly  relied  on  this statement  of  PW  2--Dr.  Sharma  and  contended  that  the presence of blisters all over the body is a sure pointer  to the fact that death had taken place 14 to 20 days before the post-mortem  examiniation.   It  may be  recalled  that  the deceased  was 45 years of age and was the victim of  violent attack with lethal weapons in which he had suffered a  fatal semi-circular  woundon the scalp 6" x 4" extended by  2"  to the  left  mid-line.  In addition thereto  he  had  received incised  wounds on his left forearm resulting in  fractures. His  right leg was cut into two pieces 6" below  the  tibia, liquified  blood  was  oozing out,  maggots  were  prersent, blisters  were seen all over the body and the  soft  cuticle peeled off easily.  There was another cut wound on the  left leg  exposing  the tibia. A 5" wound was seen at  the  right side of the mouth.  It was the scalp injury which caused the death.      It is common knowledge that after death the body starts to cool down to the surrounding temperature.  The cooling of the  body  is the earliest phenomenon which is  followed  by post-mortem lividity resulting from discontinuance of  blood circulation  and collection of blood in certain parts  under gravitational action, depending on the position of the  dead body.  the stoppage of blood circulation and the inaction of the  natural  defensive  mechanism result  in  the  bacteria present in the body as well as those that enter from outside getting  scattered in everypart of the body setting  in  the process of putrefaction, unless special-                                                        462 care  is taken to prevent the same.  Decomposition  in  thus essentially  the process of putrefaction which is  dependent on  environmental climatic conditions.  In the present  case death  had occurred on 25th September and the dead body  lay in  the police station with the wounds exposed till  it  was brought  to the hospital at 5.20 p.m. on the next day.   The body  remained  in the same condition in the  hospital  till 7.00  a.m. on the next day when the post-mortem  examination was undertaken.  The bdy thus remained fully exposed to  the heat and humidity of the month of September for over  thirty hours  and hence it is not surprising that the rigor  mortis had  passed off.  Ordinarily after rigor mortis  has  passed off,  the process of putrefaction sets in but it may set  in even  earlier  during  summer  depending  on  the  heat  and humidity. Body changing colour and emitting foul smell,  are the   two  special  characteristics  of  the   decomposition process.  The first external evidence of putrefaction is the formation  of greenish discoloration of the  abdominal  skin over  the  iliac fossae which occurs within  six  to  twelve hours in summer and spreads all over the body within  twelve to  eighteen hours of death. As time passes they  deepen  in colour  and  become purple.  With the  spread  of  bacteria, there  is  gradual development of gases  in  the  intestines within twelve to eighteen hours and liquefaction also  takes place  and  soon  spreads  to  other  parts  of  the   body. Putrefaction  thus results in general disintegration of  the tissues  due  to residual enzymatic activity  in  the  cells causing  widespread formation of gases emitting  foul  smell and  if the body is exposed, as in the present  case,  files lay  eggs on exposed wounds forming maggots.  The body  gets bloated  and   liquified,  the skin  looses  coherence,  the

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superficial layers peel off easily and blisters are  formed. it is, therefore, not suprising that owning to the formation of  gases the penis and the scrotum were swollen  and  there was the presence of maggots.      Before  we  answer the contention it  is  essential  to notice  a few facts.  The evidence of PWs 1,3 and 4 is  that the  incident occurred in the field of the  deceased.   This fact is corroborated of PW--5 Motilal and PW 6--Parbatsingh. The  find  of  blood on the grass blades and  on  the  earth attached  under  the seizure memo Exh.  p-8  confirms  their testimony.   The evidence  of these witnesses further  shows that the injured was taken in a cart to the village and from there  to  the  Bhakheda police station.   this  is  further established  by  PW 10 who has deposed that  the  vitim  was brought in a cart to the village.  the circle Inspector  PW 12  also deposes that the corpse was brought to  the  police station and from there it was sent to the hospital for post- mortem  examination which was undertaken on 27th  September, 1970  at  7.00 a.m. This evidence establishes the  chain  of events  showing the movement of the dead body and rules  out of the theory that death had taken-                                                        463 place  many days before 25th September, 1970, a  theory  not put  to  the  witnesses in  cross-examination.   The  direct testimony,  therefore, does not support the theory urged  on behalf of the appellant.      Counsel for the appellant, however, emphasised that the statement  of PW 2 in cross-examination clearly  established the existence of blisters, an objective fact, which  clearly supports the defense theory that death had taken place 14 to 20  days  prior  to  the  date  on  which  the   post-mortem examination  was held and thereby disprove  the  prosecution version  that the victim of assault died on the  evening  of 25th September, 1970.  It is interesting to note that  table on  which  the learned counsel for the appellant  relies  is omitted from the 19th and 20th edition of the book. But that apart at pages 128-129 of the bok (Twentieth Edition) it  is stated as under:           "From  twelve  to eighteen hours  after  death  in          summer the green coloration spreads over the entire          abdomen          and          the          external          genitals...............Side   by  side   with   the          appearance  of the greenish patch on  the  abodomen          the body begins to emit a nauseating and unpleasant          smell  owing to gradual develoment of the gases  of          decomposition,  some  of  which  are   sulphuretted          hydrogen,  marsh gas, carbon dioxide,  ammonia  and          phosphoretted hydrogen.                From twelve to eighteen hours after death  in          summer  these  gases  collect  in  the   intestine,          consequently  abdomen  swells up.   The  sphincters          relax, and the urine and faeces may escape.                From  eighteen to thirty-six  or  forty-eight          hours after death the gases collect in the tissues,          cavities  and  hollow  viscera  under  considerable          pressure  with the result that the features  become          bloated  and  distored, the eyes are  forcedout  of          their sockets, the tongue is protruded between  the          teeth, and the lips become swollen and everted.   A          frothy,  reddish fluid or mucus is forced from  the          mouth and nostrils.  Ultimately the features become          obilterated   and  unrecognizable.    The   abdomen          becomes greately  distended; hence  on  opening the          cavity the gas escapes with a loud explosive noise.          Owing  to  the pressure of the  gases  the  stomach

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        contents  are forced into the mouth the larynx  and          are  seen  running out of the mouth  and  nostrils.          The breast of female bodies are greatly  distended.          The  penis and scrotum become  enormously  swollen.          The  cellular tissues are inflated  throughout,  so          that the shole body appears stouter and older  than          it actually is.                                                   464                These  gases  from blisters  under  the  skin          containing a reddish coloured fluid on the  various          parts of the body.  When these bursts, the  cuticle          being   softened  peels  of  easily.    These   are          characterised by absence of vital reaction. It  will  thus  be  seen  that  blisters  appear  after  the process of decomposition sets in whithin eighteen to  fotry- eight  hours.  It shows that the existence of blisters  does not mean that death had taken place 14 to 20 days ago.  That is why PW 2 is cautious to use the pharseology ’the duration of  the  injury since death could be 14 to  20  days  also’. Having regard to the nature of the direct testimony to which we have adverted earlier andthe passage reproduced above, we find  it difficult to accept the belated submissions of  the learnd  counsel  for the appellant that the opinion  of  the medical expert PW 2 destroys the version of the  prosecution witnesses, particularly PWs 1,3,4 and 10, that the  deceased suffered  a  fatal wound on the evening of  25th  September, 1970 to which he succumbed on that very day.  We, therefore, reject this submission.      It  was  lastly  submitted that  the  evidence  of  the radiologist.  Keshav Shanker Varang, DW 3 goes to show  that the appellant was a disabled person and it was not  possible for  him to cause an injury so serious as to cut the leg  in two  parts.  In this connection, our attention was drawn  to paragraph  7 of his deposition, wherein he has  stated  that looking  to  the fracture of the appellant’s  leg  and  his chest  condition he was a disabled person who could not  run fast  or  walk quickly and, therefore,  argued  counsel,  he could  weild the sword with such ferocity as to cut the  leg in  to parts.  In cross-examination he has admitted that  he had  not  examined  the  muscle  power  the  appellant.   He conceded  that the elbow was free and, therefore,  he  could use the weapon but not with great force.  The High Court has considered  this submission in paragraph 8 of  its  judgment and has rejected it.  We do not think  that having regard to the fact that the appellant alone was weilding the sword, it is  to  rely on this opinion evidence in preference  to  the direct  evidence of three witnesses.  High Court has  rigtly rejected this submission and we need not dilate on it.      For  the above reason, we see no merit in  this  appeal and  dismiss the same.  Bail cancelled.  The appellant  will surrender forthwith.                                           Appeal dismissed                                                        465