AKHTAR HASSAN, J.--This judgment will simultaneously dispose of Murder Reference No.13 of 1984 as well as Criminal Appeal No.670 of 1983, as both these arise from conviction under section 302, P.P.C. Of Chanan (20) son of Nanak, caste Changhar, resident of Abaai Tibbi Baba Chiragh Shah, Chak No. 102/J, B, Police Station Chak Jhumra, District Faisalabad, recorded by the learned Sessions Judge, Faisalabad, in his judgment dated the 12th of December, 1983, awarding him capital sentence with fine of Rs.1,000 and in default R.I. For one year each on four counts. The entire fine was to be paid to the heirs of the deceased persons.
2. According to the F.I.R. (Exh.PF) recorded by S.H.O. P.W. 1.5 at 8-00 p.m. At Adda Barnala on the statement of Faqir Muhammad P.W. 9, the occurrence took place at 5.30 P.M. In the Abadi of Chak No.102/d, B, when Faqir Muhammad P.W.9 and his brother Fazal Muhammad P.W. 12 came from Chiniot to call on their uncle Kala, and finding him away to Azad Kashmir for earning livelihood they chatted with his children Sughran Bibi, Jamila Bibi and Shaukat, who told them that their mother Mst. Sardaran was grazing sheep just nearby. Sughran Bibi sent her brother Shaukat to Feteh Milk and herself left for adjacent fields, perhaps to ease herself but was followed by the convict Chanan, her own husband for whom she had during the coverture of 15 years produced two daughters Bilqees aged 3 years and Mehangi aged a few day a. She was living here in the house of her father for five/six months after having developed estrangement with the convict. In the chase the convict overtook her, caught her hair and whipped Chhuri quite successively in her bust even after she had fallen down. On her cries were attracted her sister Jamila. P. W . 10, brother Shaukat Ali P. W . 11, the informant Faqir Muhammad P.W.9 and the latter's brother Fazal Muhammad P.W.12. The convict after having done with Mst. Sughran Bibi rushed towards her mother Sardaran, and in a like manner applied Chhuri to her abdomen etc. Seeing the witnesses, he ran to the house of his uncle Kala, where he killed Kala's minor son Liaqat Ali (5) and his own daughter Bilqees Bibi (3) applying the same Chhuri in their busts and backsides. The witnesses despite having observed all this taking place in a small radius of about 200 feet failed to apprehend him for danger to their own lives, Mst.
Sughran Bibi and Mst. Sardaran succumbed at the spot whereas the tender children Liaqat Ali (5) and Bilqees Bibi (3) were taken to the Civil Hospital, Faisalabad, where they too expired.
3. The whole occurrence was narrated by Faqir Muhammad P.W.9 to Ghulam Hussain, S.H.O. P.W. 15 at about 8.00 P.M. The same evening at Adda Barnala. Where he accosted him. The motive shown was that Sughran Bibi deceased was living away from the convict due to estrangement for last five to six months and was not prepared to resume living with him in spite of his persuasions.
4. In the post-mortem examination of the four dead bodies taking place the next day, that is on 25- 8-1981 at 4.00 P.M. Sughran Bibi deceased (22), Sardaran (36), Bilqees (3) and Liaqat (5) were found to have sustained respectively 10, 6, 3 and 4 stab or incised wounds mostly on bust e.g. Chest or abdomen, fatally damaging vital parts. All these injuries in duration synchronised with the time of occurrence.
5. The convict was arrested on 7-9-1981 and led to the recovery of Chhuri P.1 which was taken into possession vide memo. Exh.P.H. And was chemically found to be stained with human blood.
6. When formally charged for these murders, the convict pleaded not guilty and claimed to be tried. At the trial the informant reiterated what he earlier disclosed in the F.I.R The eye-witnesses Fazal Muhammad P.W.12, Jamila P.W.10 and Shaukat P.W.11 unmistakably indicted him for having killed all the deceased. Kala P.W. 14 supported the recovery of blood-stained Chhuri P.1 at his instance. The Investigating Officer Ghulam Hussain P.W. 15 deposed to having scribed the F.I.R. And taken various steps in the course of investigation. At the end of trial the convict denied having killed any of the deceased or led to recovery of the Chhuri P.I. He, however, stated that the informant Faqir Muhammad and his brother Fazal Muhammad, P.Ws wanted him to divorce Mst. Sughran (deceased) so that they could get her married to their own Bhanja, Shadi. He admitted also that she had left his house six months before the occurrence of her own accord and that she did not come back to live with him in spite of his numerous efforts. He examined in defence Munshi D.W. 1, Tufail D.W.2 who earlier were given up by the prosecution. Their version was that Faqir Muhammad and Fazal Muhammad, P.Ws. Were sent for from Chiniot next morning meaning thereby that they were not present at the locale and similarly Shaukat P.W. Was at Meerpur with his father Kala on the day of occurrence. They, however, did not show as to who had committed these gruesome murders, nor did they tell why the convict was involved for butchering them. The record shows that they were picked up for defence after they were dropped by the prosecution.
7. Raja Muhammad Sabir, Advocate for the convict stressed that presence of the informant and Fazal Muhammad P.W.12, as they were coming from a distant place, was highly doubtful and that their testimony should not have been implicitly relied upon. It is not denied that they were real nephews of Kala P.W. And obviously had good reasons to be in his house. Their presence was heavily corroborated by Jamila P.W.10 and Shaukat P.W.11 who could not be disbelieved merely because they were either small kids or close relations of the deceased. In fact there could be no objection on the basis of relationship of the witnesses with the deceased because the convict too was related to them. A person was killing among others his own wife and children. Relationship of the witnesses with such deceased a fortiori will also hold him in the same degree of kinship with them. The distance wherefrom they came according to one version was six miles (P.W.9) and according to the other 20 to 25 miles (P.W. 12). It was indicated by the latter that even a month earlier they had come to meet their uncle Kala. Nothing was brought on the record to disprove their occasional visits to Kala's house, nor was there anything of the nature of personal axe on the part of these witnesses to grind against the convict. Faqir Muhammad P.W.9 denied if they had pressed the convict to divorce Sughran Bibi, while Fazal Muhammad P.W.12 was asked nothing about it.
Although in his own statement the convict disclosed that these witnesses after getting divorce for Sughran Bibi deceased from him wanted to marry her to their own Bhanja, Shadi, yet no such suggestion was made to either of them. Even otherwise the plea does not much inhere because Sughran Bibi deceased having espoused the convict 15 years ago and given birth to a few children, must have lost lustre for any new husband. The record shows that the convict lived a normal life in the same village having parents, brothers, wife and children too. His family life for all purposes was smooth inasmuch as it was for the first time, say six months ago, that the deceased Sughran Bibi left his house. Their previous conduct did not reveal anything unusual and hence there was no occasion whatsoever for the middle aged lady to go in for a fresh husband. The suggestion was not sufficient to detract from the credibility of Faqir Muhammad and Fazal Muhammad, P.Ws. Mst.
Jamila P.W. 10 supported the whole occurrence on broad lines although she did not know what was meant by 3 o'clock or 5 o'clook or a month or a year or how many days were required to make a month. These infirmities perhaps were germane to her young age of ten years, but being an inmate of the same house she could little miss to note killings of many persons like her own mother, sister, brother and Bhanji. Her unsophisticated mind may not articulate what a month or a year was, but a visual observation of such a dastardly act committed right in her own courtyard to her mother, brother etc. Could not have been possibly missed or forgotten. This analysis will be rather true in case of Shaukat Ali P.W. 11 (aged 15) being a like inmate of the same house. He corroborated the entire prosecution case. All of them categorically denied if some dacoits entering the house of the deceased during darkness had murdered them or that the convict was involved on mere suspicion. Further, the suggestion of dacoits killing the deceased was not adhered to by the convict in his own statement and this incoherence on his part makes things worse for him.
8. Raja Muhammad Sabir, Advocate for the convict submitted, of course without conceding, that the convict inasmuch as he was said to have murdered his own wife, mother-in-law and daughter etc. Acted like a lunatic, but the record does not show any indication to that effect. At no stage he claimed to be a Lunatic or appeared to have had suffered from any mental disease like epilepsy, hallucination or typical psychic to indulge in man slaughter. Why he acted so, was indeed an extremely an unusual phenomenon, but in the absence of previous history of any mental abrasion on his part, he shall be deemed to have done all this after coolly considering it. He had gone amuck no doubt, but not out of any recognised mental disease. Probably for this reason no such ground was taken up at the trial.
9. The recovery of blood-stained Chhuri P.1 at the instance of the convict afforded consideration of his guilt. Kala P.W.14 supported it. In the chemical analysis it was found to contain human blood.
Medical evidence consisting of a huge number of injuries on all the four victims lend still further corroboration to the prosecution case in that primarily these were either stab or incised wounds.
The location of those injuries mostly being on the chest or abdomen reinforced the ocular version given by the eye-witnesses.
10. As already remarked, the convict did not stick to his version put to the P.Ws. Relating to dacoits killing the deceased. He changed it to say in his own statement that the P.Ws. Faqir Muhammad and Fazal Muhammad wanted the hand of his wife Sughran Bibi deceased for their sister's son Shadi. Since it was not correspondingly suggested to them, it had no value. One thing which he admitted clearly was that his wife Sughran Bibi deceased had left his house six months earlier and that she had not come back to join him in spite of his numerous efforts. This admission though inchoate considerably bears out a big part of the prosecution case which tends to connect the incident with her refusal to go back to his house. Mere denial on his part was not enough. The occurrence took place during day time when substitution was next to impossible. The locale was not disputed nor even the time of occurrence was successfully shaken. Post-mortem reports synchronised the deaths of the victims with the time given in the F.I.R. The defence evidence made no mark, Munshi D.W.1 and Tufail D.W.2 were earlier included in the calendar of prosecution witnesses, but they were dropped pointing out that they had been suborned. They were somewhere in the neighbourhood and were cited as such. Tufail Muhammad is a Patwari. Being neighbour they were expected to have noticed as to who was taking lives of not less than four persons adjacent to their house. They did not mention any one, and what instead they disclose was that Faqir Muhammad and Fazal Muhammad, P.Ws. Had come from Chiniot next morning or that Shaukat P.W. Was at Meerpur with his father Kala. Munshi observed that he did not know why the convict was implicated in this case, whereas Tufail Muhammad maintain that the aforesaid P.Ws.
Were inimical to the convict on account of his having married Sughran Bibi deceased 15 years ago.
According to him they wanted her hand for their Bhanja, Shadi. We do not think cause of grievance over Sughran Bibi's marriage with the convict taking place 15 years ago was still smouldering in the minds of the P.Ws. By the time Shadi may have married elsewhere and the lapse of such a long time would have softened the attitudes. The contention was devoid of force.
11. As a result we do not find anything favourable for the convict appellant. Taking lives of his own kith and kin in a matter of minutes by applying a long Chhuri successively on their most vital parts left little to feel for him. No plausible reason was advanced to mitigate rigours of the heinous act.
The sentence of death as also fine on all. The four counts is confirmed. The reference is so disposed of and the connected criminal appeal is dismissed.