1) Faddi was convicted of murdering 11-year old Gulab based on circumstantial evidence. Gulab was last seen alive being forcibly taken away by Faddi.
2) Faddi claimed in an FIR that Gulab's body was found in a well, but medical evidence and eyewitnesses contradicted details in Faddi's statement.
3) The Supreme Court upheld Faddi's conviction, finding that the circumstances established by the High Court, including Faddi being the last seen with Gulab and unable to explain his death, were sufficient to prove Faddi committed the murder.
1) Faddi was convicted of murdering 11-year old Gulab based on circumstantial evidence. Gulab was last seen alive being forcibly taken away by Faddi.
2) Faddi claimed in an FIR that Gulab's body was found in a well, but medical evidence and eyewitnesses contradicted details in Faddi's statement.
3) The Supreme Court upheld Faddi's conviction, finding that the circumstances established by the High Court, including Faddi being the last seen with Gulab and unable to explain his death, were sufficient to prove Faddi committed the murder.
1) Faddi was convicted of murdering 11-year old Gulab based on circumstantial evidence. Gulab was last seen alive being forcibly taken away by Faddi.
2) Faddi claimed in an FIR that Gulab's body was found in a well, but medical evidence and eyewitnesses contradicted details in Faddi's statement.
3) The Supreme Court upheld Faddi's conviction, finding that the circumstances established by the High Court, including Faddi being the last seen with Gulab and unable to explain his death, were sufficient to prove Faddi committed the murder.
Statute: - CrPC- S.162, IEA- SS. 21 & 25 (This is a leave to appeal against the order of the high court of M.P confirming conviction & sentence of faddi U/S. 302 I.P.C) Facts: - Jaibai lived with Faddi, after death of her husband, Buddha at Morena. Jaibai had a son named Gulab aged 11 yrs. He stayed at the house of his relative named Ramle. (Relevant fact/ act): - Gulab’s corpse was recovered from a well of a village on Jan 21, 1963. In the post- mortem report his death was expressed having been caused within two or three days also due to injury on the skull. The report mentioned absence of water inside either the lungs/ abdomen/ larynx/ middle ear. (Note: - The report ruled out the possibility of Gulab’s dying due to drowning). Police Investigation Details Appellant Faddi Lodged FIR stating that on peeping into the well near the peepul tree on morning of Jan 20, 1962, he found his son lying dead in the well. Three persons Ramle, Bhanta and one cyclist were named as accused of the offence of murdering Gulab. The above information took the police to the well and to the recovery of the corpse. The name culprits were arrested and remained the lock up for 8 to 11 days. In the meantime investigation was taken over by the circle inspector, from OIC on Jan 26, 1962 upon the orders of S.P and Faddi was arrested on Jan 27. Faddi took the circle inspector to his house and delivered a pair of shorts of Gulab to him. Circumstantial evidences (The case involves conviction on circumstantial evidence in absence of any direct evidence) Vital evidences of Circumstance The following pieces of circumstantial evidences are important to be perused. 1. Faddi went to Ramle’s house on noon, Jan 19 and asked him to send Gulab with him. Gulab was in the fields by them. After meals Faddi left suddenly when Shyama arrived & gave a message to Ramle from Gulab’s mother that Gulab be not sent with any one. Faddi caught hold of Gulab from the fields forcibly and took him away. One Banwari was with Faddi at this time. 2. Gulab had not been seen alive subsequent to Faddi’s taking away on Jan 19 afternoon. Faddi had not been able to give any satisfactory explanation as to how he and Gulab parted company. 3. Faddi knew the place where Gulab’s corpse lay this statement that he had seen the corpse floating in the well was untrue as according to the doctor, the corpse could come up and float in water only after two days since death. The recovery witness deposed that they could not see the corpse floating rather it was recovered by use of angles. 4. Faddi had confessed to Jaibai & two other prosecution witnesses about his killing Gulab. 5. The pair of shorts recovered was the one Gulab was wearing at the time he was taken away by Faddi. Note: - (The High Court did not rely on the confession and on the recovery of the pair of shorts from Faddi. The SC also noted it to be right as the evidence about confession was discrepant and unconvincing for lack of test identification and non- examination of accused about Gulab’s shorts.) Holding of the High Court With respect to Faddi’s committing Gulab’s murder rested on other circumstances. Sufficient to establish Gulab’s murder. They are as follows. 1. In his report the appellant admitted his forcibly taking away Gulab from village Torkheda whereupon, Ramle, Bhanta and Shyamlal threatened him with life, took out pyjama and Half- part from Gulab’s body and taking the boy with them remained sitting on the well. The appellant kept himself concealed from their view, nearby. He heard the sound of something being thrown into the well when after the three persons ran away, but he remained sitting there throughout the night and then peeping into the well next morning. Observed the corpse of his son in the well. 2. The S.C considered the above report as a first information report but not a confessional Statement and noted that the lower courts having considered the Appellant’s statements found them false as the appellant could not explain Gulab’s disappearance while he had taken Gulab with him, as shown by prosecution evidence. 3. The S.C cited the High Court’s consideration of the fact that the appellant knew where the deceased body was which was not explained by him as to how he came to know about it. Thus what he had stated in the report had been considered & found to be untrue. Additionally, his statement that Gulab was forcibly taken from him by Ramle & others was untrue as he would have ordinarily gone & taken some action, without wasting his time in just following those people. Even if he was interested in following them and heard the sound of something being thrown inside the well and seen those persons running away, he had no reason to remain hidden there the whole night. Furthermore, the appellant’s statement that he observed the dead body floating in the well was also found to be incorrect by the H.C. 4. The appellant’s contention before the S.C was that FIR was inadmissible in evidence & should not have been therefore taken on record, was rejected. The appellant’s reliance on Nisar Ali’s case (SC) (1957) was not found valid as in Nisar Ali’s case as the FIR was in the nature of a confession by the maker and as per law a confessional FIR cannot be used against the maker when he be an accused and necessarily cannot be used against a co- accused. The supreme Court noted that in Nisar Ali’s case it had not to determine that a FIR which is not a confession cannot be used as an admission U/S. 21 IEA or as a relevant statemen under any other provision of that Act. Held: - the report of the appellant is not his confessional statement made to a police officer during investigation S. 25 IEA & S. 162 CrPC. Do not bar its admissibility as the report is an admission of accused of certain facts having a bearing on the question how and by Whom Gulab’s murder was committed or whether appellant’s statements in court denying correctness of certain statements of prosecution witnesses is correct or not. Accordingly, it was held by S.C that a FIR not being a confession can be used as an admission U/S. 21 IEA as a relevant statement under any other provision of the Act. For reliance, the privy council’s judgement in Dal Singh v. King Emperor, the Rajasthan High Court’s judgements State v. Balchand in (1960), State of Rajasthan v. Shiv Singh (1962) and Allahabad High Court’s judgement in Allahdia v. State (1959) were cited. Finally, the court held that the circumstances held established by the H.C. are sufficient to reach the conclusion that Gulab was murdered by appellant who was the last person in whose company deceased was seen alive and who knew where the dead body lay and who gave untrue explanation about his knowing it in the report lodged by him and gave no explanation in the court as to how he separated from the deceased. Order: - Appeal dismissed.