Jaladhar Mondal vs State Of West Bengal

NON-REPORTABLE

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

CRIMINAL APPEAL NO(s). 1081 OF 2006

JALADHAR MONDAL Appellant (s)

VERSUS

STATE OF WEST BENGAL Respondent(s)

J U D G M E N T

GANGULY, J.

Heard the learned Amicus Curiae in the matter as also the

learned counsel for the State.

2. This appeal is at the instance of the sole surviving

appellant against the judgment and order of conviction by the

Additional Sessions Judge, Bankura, which was affirmed by the High

Court.

3. Initially, there were three accused persons, namely, the

appellant Jaladhar Mondal, Meghnath Mondal and Smt. Rasibala

Mondal. Jaladhar Mondal is the husband of the deceased Rina

Mondal and Meghnath Mondal and Smt. Rasibala Mondal respectively

are father-in-law and mother-in-law of the deceased Rina, who was

married in the family of Mondals with the appellant-accused

Jaladhar. The death of Rina Mondal took place within one year of

2

her marriage.

4. Initially, the accused persons were charged under Section

302/201 I.P.C. alternatively under Sections 304B/398A I.P.C.

5. The trial court after a full-fledged trial, convicted the

accused persons under Section 302/201 I.P.C. and sentenced them to

suffer imprisonment for life under Section 302 and further ordered

rigorous imprisonment for three years u/s 201 IPC and to pay a

fine of Rs.1000/- each, in default to undergo further imprisonment

for three months and the sentences were to run concurrently. All

the accused persons were acquitted of the charges u/s. 498A and

304-B IPC.

6. After their conviction, an appeal was taken to the High

Court by the accused persons. During the pendency of the appeal,

Meghnath Mondal and Smt. Rasibala Mondal expired. However, the

present appellant, Jaladhar Mondal was convicted by the High Court

and the present appeal is at his instance only.

7. The incident which had taken place and led to the death of

the deceased, Rina Mondal, have been very graphically noted with

all the details in the judgment of the learned Trial Judge. So,

these facts are not repeated here.

3

8. In this case, the information was lodged by PW-4 on

receiving information on 25.3.88 about the death of the deceased,

Rina Mondal, allegedly by catching fire at the matrimonial house.

On receiving the said information, PW-4 came to the village of the

appellant and after getting the information from the local people,

lodged the complaint at the local police station alleging foul

play. On receipt of such complaint, the local police started a

specific case and thereafter getting the post mortem report from

Doctor, which confirmed homicidal death of Rina Mondal, submitted

charge-sheet against the appellant.

9. In all, 12 witnesses were examined of which PW-1 is the

brother of Meghnath Mondal (since deceased), PW-2 and PW-3 are the

neighbors of the appellant, PW-4 is the cousin of the deceased

girl and PW-6 is the father of the deceased, PW-7 is Dr. J.N. Dey,

who conducted the post mortem, PW-8 is the mother of the deceased

girl and PW-11 is the other neighbor of the appellant and PW-12 is

the Investigating Officer.

10. Both the courts - trial court and the High Court, after

detailed consideration of the evidence available on record, came

to the concurrent finding that there is no direct evidence in the

case. The evidence on the basis of which both the Courts have

proceeded was the circumstantial evidence and also the medical

evidence of PW-7. Medical evidence of PW-7 has figured very

4

prominently in the case and relying on the medical evidence of PW-

7, both the Trial Judge and the High Court negatived the defence

case that Rina Mondal died out of accidental fire in the house.

The learned Trial Judge upon very detailed consideration of the

medical evidence and by referring to various authorities of the

medical jurisprudence have come to notice the nature of injuries,

which have been sustained by Rina Mondal, particularly the

fracture of cornua of hyoid bone of both sides, fracture of first

and second ribs on the left side and fracture of first rib on

right side. The trial court held, and rightly so, that these

injuries cannot be caused by accidental fire but was the result of

manual strangulation by more than one persons.

11. The evidence of PW-7, the post moretm Doctor, is relevant

in this connection. PW-7 is a Professor and Head of the

Department of Forensic and State Medicine at B.S.M.C. & Hospital

and is obviously an independent witness. PW-7 deposed that in the

case of Rina Mondal, soot was absent in the larynx and trachea

column and that led the post moretm Doctor to opine that the burn

injuries were post-mortem in nature. On the basis of this

evidence, the learned Trial Judge came to the conclusion that the

death of Rina Mondal initially was caused by physical

strangulation and thereafter her body was thrown to the flames to

destroy evidence of strangulation and the upper portion of the

body was allowed to suffer third degree burn.

5

12. Both the trial court and the High Court found it very

strange that in a case of accidental fire, nobody other than Rina

Mondal suffered burn injuries and none of the three inmates of the

house suffered a scratch of an injury, even though the defence

case was that everybody was in the house at the time of accidental

fire when the house caught fire. There is no evidence that any

one of the inmates of the house even tried to save Rina from fire

and in the process got injured. Both the courts have also found

it very strange that in such a fire the adjoining house, which was

also covered by thatched roof and which belonged to PW-1, brother

of Megnath, did not catch fire at all. All these facts were very

correctly appreciated by the trial court and also by the High

Court to come to the concurrent finding that death of Rina was

caused by physical strangulation and then to cause disappearance

of evidence of strangulation of Rina Mondal, her body was thrown

in the flames, which was not accidental but was caused for the

aforesaid purpose.

13. Sitting in jurisdiction under Article 136 of the

Constitution of India, it is difficult for us to interfere with

such concurrent findings based on cogent reasoning and proper

appreciation of the materials on record and the evidence of the

case. It may also be noted that the appellant, who is the husband

of the deceased, did not suffer any injury and made no attempt to

6

save the unfortunate girl.

14. The appeal is, therefore, dismissed.

......................,J (ASOK KUMAR GANGULY)

......................,J (DEEPAK VERMA)

NEW DELHI MAY 25, 2011