Holding

The Supreme Court held that the appellant was not entitled to acquittal because the person whose body was found in 1983 was not the same as the victim of the 1971 murder, and the forged letter did not alter the validity of the conviction.

Summary

The appellants, convicted of life imprisonment for the 1971 murder of Kunwar Bahadur, sought acquittal on the ground that a man of the same name was found dead in 1983, suggesting the original victim was alive for twelve years. The Supreme Court, invoking its power under Article 136, ordered the District Magistrate of Vidisha to conduct an inquiry, examine documents, and compare photographs of the two bodies. The inquiry concluded that the 1983 deceased was not the same individual murdered in 1971 and that the letter recovered with the body was forged. The Court also noted procedural lapses by the police in registering the 1983 death as a murder. Relying on these findings, the Court dismissed the appeal, upholding the original conviction.

Issues considered

When can the Supreme Court, under Article 136, direct further investigation into a conviction claimed to be based on a non‑existent murder?
Does the discovery of a dead body bearing the same name as the alleged victim invalidate the earlier murder conviction?
Do forged documents presented in support of the alleged survival of the victim affect the validity of the conviction?

Legislation cited

Constitution of Indias. Article 136

Subjects

murderwrongful convictionSupreme Court jurisdictionArticle 136forged documentlife imprisonmentcriminal appealspecial leaveadministration of justice

Judgment

862

LALLU RAM AND ORS.
v.
B STATE OF U.P. AND ANR.
September 27, 1984

[Y. V. CHANDRACHUD, C. J., E. S. VENKATARAMIAH AND
A. VARADARAJAN, JJ.J
Administration of Justice-When a life convict appeals that he was convicted
0 for a murder that never was, the Supreme Court can reconsider the question
seriously and cal/for further reports for doing ful/t!r ji.rstice-Acquittals-Attempts
to secure false acquittals by forginr a fictitious docun1ents deprecated-Constitu-
tion of India, 1950 Article 136.

The appellants were convicted and ~cntenccd to '>Uffcr imprisonment for
life for the murder of a person by the name of Kunwar Bahadur in the village
D ofBamori Kalan, District Jalaun on July 18, 19'71. Based on a news item
carried by a Hindi daily called 'Nav Bharat' on June 3, 19i3, that the dead body
of one Kunwar Bahadur Singh was found in Vidisha in suspicious circumstances
and that a letter purported to have been written by one Kunwar Bahadur Singh
was recovered from the person of the deceased. the appellants filed a petition
before the High Court of Madhya Pradesh, praying for their acquittals conten-
B ding that Kunwar Bahadur Singh for whose murder they were convicted in 1971
was alive for twelve years thereafter and, therefore, itheir conviction was illegal.
The High Court dismissed the petition. Hence the appeal by Special Leave of
the Court.

Dismissing the appeal, the Court,

F HELD ; 1 : 1. When a person convicted of murder raised the question that
he has material to ·show that he was convicted for a murder that had never
taken place, as, for C;\an1ple, by showing that the person who was alleged to
have been murdered is in fact aHve the Supreme Court has the jurisdiction, in
appropriate cases, to call for further data from the concerned authorities in
order to examine-the contention of the convict. This jurisdiction on which the

G
Supreme Court can exercise, though with circumspection, is in order to do
complete justice in any matter which is pending before it or which has been dis·
posed of by it. [863G-H, 864A]
-
1 : 2. The instant case, however, is an example of what an incredible arnollnt
of ingenuity is exercised by the people to secure fal::;e acquittals. The two reports
called for from the District Magistrate, Vidisha, and the two photographs of
H
tALLURAM v. li.P. STATE (Chandrachud, CJ.) 863
the two dead bodies found in 1971 and 1983, respectively make it clear that
(t) Kunwar Bahadur Singh for whose murder the appellants were convicted
thirteen years ago is not the same person whose dead body wa<; found on June
2 1983 in Vidisha and (2) The letter which was found on the person of the dead
b~dy on June 2, 1983 ·is.a forged and fictitious document manufactured for the
purpose of obtaining false acquittals. [863D, 864E, 865E-FJ
B
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Criminal Appeal No. 476
of 1984.

Appeal by Special leave from the Judgment and Order dated
the 6th December, 1983 of the Allahabad High Court in Appeal No.
611 of 1976.

Dr. N. M. Ghatate and C.K. Ratnaparkhi for the Appellants.
c
Manoj Swarup Dalveer Bhandari and A.K. Sanghi for the
Respondents.

The Jud~ment of the Court was delivered by

CHANDRACHUD, C.J. It is necessary to record this short order
a
so that it may be known as to what an· incredible amount of
ingenuity is exercised by the people to secure false acquittals.

A person by the name of Kunwar Bahadur was murdered in
the village of Bamori Kalan, District Jalaun, on July 18, 1971. The E
appellants were convicted for that murder and were sentenced to
suffer imprisonment for life.

-. On June 2, 1983, dead body was found in Vidisha, Madhya
Pradesh. A letter purported to have been written by one Kunwar
Bahadur was recovered from the person of the deceased. On the
F
next day, June 3, 1983, a Hindi daily called 'Nav Bharat' carried a
news item to the effect that the dead body of one Kunwar Bahadur
Singh was found in Vidisha in suspicious circumstances and that the
letter which was recovered from the person of the deceased showed
that he was repentent. This news item is alleged to have come to the
notice of the relatives of the appellants, who contacted the Vidisha
police. The contention of the appellants is that Kanwar Bahadur, G
for whose murder they were convicted in 1971 was alive for 12 years
thereafter and that his dead body was found on June 2, 1983. By
this appeal, they pray for an order of acquittal, or rather, for an
order setting aside their 12 year old conviction on the ground that
they were convicted for a murder that never was. II
864 SUPREME COUitT REPORtS (198$] l s.C.ll..

A
Since this appeal raised a question of serious concern to the
administration of justice, an order was passed by this Court on April
lJ, 1984 directing the District Magistrate, Vidisha, to hold an
inquiry into the allegation as to whether the person called Kunwar
Bahadur, who was alleged to have been murdered in 1971, was
B found alive after the alleged murder and was thereafter murdered in
some other incident which took place in 1983. The District Magis-
trate, Vidisha, Shri O.P. Dube, has submitted a report which
deserves high praise. He has recorded statements of 18 persons and
has examined documents leading to the conclusfon that the person
whose body was found on June 2, 1983 is not the person who was
c murdered in 1971 and for whose murder the appellants were senten-
ced to life imprisonment.

It is clear from the report of the District Magistrate that the
letter which was found on the person of the dead body on June 2
1983 is a forged and fictitious document manufactured for the
D
purpose of getting over the order whereby' the appellants were convic-
ted for the murder of Kunwar Bahadur in 1971. The age of
Kunwar Bahadur who was murdered in 1971 does not tally wiih the
age of the person alleged to be Kun war Bahadur whose dead body
was found on June 2, 1983. The close relatives of the real Kuuwar
E Bahadur who was murdered in 1971, have stated before the District
Magistrate that the handwriting of the letter found on the person of
the dead body which was discovered on June 2, 1983 is not that of
Kunwar Bahadur who was murdered in 1971.

After the receipt of the District Magistrate's Report, this
.-
F appeal came up for hearing on August 13, 1984 when Dr. N.M.
Ghatate, appearing for the appellants, asked that the District
Magistrate should be directed further to show the photograph of the
dead body which was discovered on June 2, 1983, to the close
relatives of Kunwar Bahadur in order to remove any doubt on the
question whether the person whose dead body was found in 1983 is
G the very Kunwar Bahadur for whose murder the appellants were
convicted. Seeing the plausibility of this submission, a direction was
given by this Court to the District Magistrate to do the needful and
submit a further report to this Court.

In accordance with the aforesaid . dire•ction, the District
Magistrate showed the photograph of the dead body which was
ff
LALLURAM v. U.P. STATE (Chandraachud, C.1.) 865

found on June 2, 1983 to Kaushilya Rani, Jamana Das Lodhi and
Sughar Singh who are respectively the widow, brother and son of
Kunwar Bahadur who was murdered in 1971. The brother and son
of Kunwar Bahadur stated that the photograph of the dead body
which was discovered on June 2, 1983 is not that of Knnwar
Bahadur. Kaushilya Rani stated before the District Magistrate that ll
htr husband was tall and slim, that he was not fat and that his com-
plexion was fair. However she was unable to say whether the
photograph shown to her was that of her husband, since the impres-
sion in the photograph was not clear.

On the basis of these statements, the District Magistrate has c
submitted a Supplementary Report to this Court stating that the
photograph of the dead body is not that of Kun war Bahadur. We
had directed the District Magistrate to forward to us, along with his
report, the photograph of Kunwar Bahadur who was murdered in
1971 and the photograph of the dead body which was found in 1983. 6
Having compared these two photographs, which are annexures o
and IO to the report of the District Magistrate, we are of the opinion
that the conclusion to which the District Magistrate has come is
correct. There is no resemblance between the two photographs.
\.
The District Magistrate has stated that the officers of the
Vidisha Police Station are guilty of a serious lapse in not registering E
the crime of murder when a dead body was found in their jurisdic-
tion on June 2, 1983. As observed by him in this report which is
drawn with commendable care, the entire case is shrouded in suspi-
cion and deserves to be inquired into by the higher Police authori-
ties. ·
In the result, we are of the opinion that Kunwar Bahadur for
whose murder the appellants were convicted 13 years ago, is not the
same person whose dead body was found on June 2, 1983 in Vidisha.
The appeal is accordingly dismissed. F

.~.R. Appeal dismissed.