Case: Dhananjoy Chatterjee Vs. State Of West Bengal

Hetal Parekh a young 18 year old school-going- girl was raped and murdered on March 5, 1990 between 5.30 and 5.45 p.m. in her Flat No. 3-A, on the third floor of Anand Apartment. The appellant was challenged and tried for rape and murder and also for an offence under Section 380IPC for committing theft of a wrist-watch from the said flat. The learned Additional Sessions Judge found him guilty and convicted the appellant (i) for an offence under Section 302IPC and sentenced him to death, (ii) for an offence under Section 376IPC and sentenced him to imprisonment for life, and (iii) for the offence under Section 380IPC, he was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for five years. The substantive sentences under Sections 376 and 380IPC were ordered to run concurrently but were to cease to have any effect, in case the sentence of death for conviction of the appellant under Section 302IPC was confirmed by the High Court and the appellant was executed. Reference for confirmation of the death sentence was accordingly made to the High Court. The appellant also preferred an appeal against his conviction and sentence in the High Court. The criminal appeal filed by the appellant was dismissed and the sentence of death was confirmed by the High Court. On special leave being granted, the appellant, Dhananjoy Chatterjee Dhana, has filed this appeal.2. According to the prosecution case, the appellant Dhananjoy was one of the security guards deputed to guard the building Anand Apartment by M/s Security and Investigating Bureau of which Mr Shyam Karmakar PW 21 was the proprietor. On March 2, 1990, Hetal deceased complained to her mother Yashmoti Parekh PW 3 that the appellant had been teasing her on her way to and back from the school and had proposed to her on that day to accompany him to a cinema hall to watch a movie. She had made complaints about the teasing by the appellant to her mother previously also. Yashmoti PW 3 told her husband Nagardas Parekh PW 4 on March 3, 1990 about the behaviour of the appellant towards their daughter, who in turn complained to Shyam Karmakar PW 21 and requested him to replace the appellant. At the asking of Shyam Karmakar PW 21, who came to meet Nagardas PW 4 in his flat in that connection, PW 4 gave a written complaint also and the appellant was transferred and a transfer order posting the appellant at Paras Apartment was issued by PW 21. Bijoy Thapa, a security guard at Paras Apartment was posted in his place, at Anand Apartment. The transfer was to take effect from March 5, 1990.3. As per their normal routine, Nagardas Parekh PW 4 and his son Bhawesh Parekh PW 5, father and brother of the deceased respectively, left for their place of business and college in the morning on March 5, 1990. Bhawesh PW 5 returned to the flat at about 11.30 a.m. and after taking his meals, left for his fathers place of business as was his routine. The deceased returned to her flat after taking her examination at about 1 p.m. Yashmoti PW 3, the mother of the deceased used to visit Laxmi Narayan Mandir between 5 and 5.30 p.m. daily. As usual, on the date of the occurrence also she left for the Temple at about 5.20 p.m. Hetal deceased was all alone in the flat at that time. The appellant, in spite of the order of transfer, did not report at Paras Apartment and instead performed his duties, as a security guard, at Anand Apartment between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m. on March 5, 1990. Shortly after Yashmoti PW 3, the mother of the deceased left for the Temple, the appellant met Dasarath Murmu PW 7, another security guard who was at that time on duty at the building and told him that he was going to Flat No. 3-A for contacting his office over the telephone. The appellant used the lift to go to the said flat. At about 5.45 p.m., Pratap Chandra Pall PW 6, supervisor of the Security and Investigating Bureau, visited Anand Apartment and enquired from PW 7 whether Bijoy Thapa had performed his duty in place of the appellant in the morning but was told by Dasarath PW 7, that Bijoy Thapa had not come to that building and that the duties had been performed by the appellant between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m. on that day. On inquiry by the supervisor as to where the appellant was, PW 7 told the supervisor that at that particular time, the appellant had gone to Flat No. 3-A with a view to contact his office over the telephone. The supervisor Pratap Chandra PW 6 asked Dasarath PW 7 to call the appellant and since, he was not able to contact him through the intercom, there being no response from Flat No. 3A, he called out the name of the appellant, who appeared at the balcony of Flat No. 3-A and on being told that PW 6, the supervisor had come and wanted to see him, told him that he would come down. The appellant after a little while came down by the stairs and even though the supervisor PW 6 and Dasarath PW 7 were waiting for him, he hurriedly went past them and on being asked by PW 6 that he wanted to talk to him, told him to come outside the gate and speak to him. The appellant on inquiry by PW 6 as to why he had not obeyed the transfer order told him that due to some personal difficulty he could not report for duty at Paras Apartment. He was advised to take charge at Paras Apartment without fail the next day. The appellant thereafter left.4. At about 6.05 p.m. Yashmoti PW 3 returned from the Temple. While going to her flat in the lift, she was told by Ramdhan Yadav PW 8, the lift operator, that the appellant had gone to her flat in her absence to make a telephone call to his office. She was annoyed on getting this information because of the complaint which the deceased had made to her earlier. On reaching her flat, she rang the bell repeatedly but there was no response and nobody opened the door. She raised alarm which attracted several of her neighbours. They also rang the bell and knocked at the door but there was no response. Eventually, the lock of the door was broken open by the neighbours, their servant and the liftman, and as she entered the flat along with some of her neighbours, she found the door of her bedroom open. Hetal deceased was lying on the floor. Her skirt and blouse had been pulled up and her private parts and breasts were visible. There were patches of blood near her head as well as on the floor. There were bloodstains on her hands and vagina also. Her wearing apparel was bloodstained. There were some marks of violence and blood was found on her face as well. There were blood marks on the Jhoola lying in the room. Her torn panty was found lying near the entrance of the door and the deceased appeared to be unconscious at that time. Her mother, PW 3, lifted the deceased in her arms and rushed down through the lift with a view to take her to the doctor. In the meantime, a doctor had been summoned by the neighbours who arrived and on examining the deceased in the lift itself, where she was lying in the lap of her mother, pronounced her dead. Information of the occurrence was sent to the father of the deceased and at about 7 p.m. Bhawesh PW 5 returned. In the meantime, another doctor, who had also been called, arrived and after examining the deceased certified her as dead. The dead body of Hetal was taken back to the flat and laid on her bed in her room and was covered by a sheet. At about 8.30 p.m. father of the deceased, Nagardas PW 4 returned to the flat and on being told of the murder of Hetal, he informed Bhawanipore Police Station at about 9.15 p.m. on the telephone. On receipt of the telephonic message, Sub-Inspector Gurupada Som PW 28, the acting duty officer, rushed to the place of occurrence along with some other police personnel and recorded the FIR on the statement of Yashmoti Parekh PW 3, the mother of the deceased and commenced investigation. During the search of the room where the deceased had been allegedly raped and murdered, bloodstained earth, a broken chain, a cream colour button, the torn panty of the deceased and some other articles were seized and sealed into a parcel after preparing seizure memos. Statements of some witnesses were also recorded.5. Search was made for the appellant by the police at different places during the night intervening 5th and 6th March 1990 but in vain. The appellant did not even visit his employers to collect his wages for the past 5 days. He did not report at Paras Apartment either. Though he was also doing night duty at another place, he did not report for duty there and did not collect his wages for four days service rendered with the other employer either. He was not traceable. Some raids were conducted in the village of the appellant at Kuludihi, within the jurisdiction of Chatna Police Station on different dates but ultimately it was only on May 12, 1990 that the appellant came to be arrested. Pursuant to a disclosure statement made by him under Section 27 of the Evidence Act, a Richo wrist-watch was recovered. Appellant also led to the recovery of his shirt and trousers wrapped in a newspaper from his house pursuant to a disclosure statement. At the trial the appellant pleaded innocence and alleged false implication "due to quarrel with PW 4 over his transfer". In his statement made at the trial under Section 313 Cr.P.C., the appellant stated that after his duty hours as the security guard at Anand Apartment on the date of the occurrence he had gone to a cinema and then purchased some fruits in connection with the sacred thread ceremony of his younger brother and left for his native place with the fruits to participate in the said ceremony. He denied the recoveries allegedly made from him. He, however, led no defence evidence.6. There is no eyewitness of this occurrence. The entire case rests on circumstantial evidence. Hetal Parekh, the unfortunate young school-going girl of about 18 years of age, had been subjected to rape before her death and that the death was homicidal in nature stands amply established by the testimony of Dr Dipankar Guha PW 20, who conducted the postmortem examination on the dead body. As many as 21 injuries were noticed by Dr Dipankar Guha on the deceased and since both the trial court and the High Court have reproduced the injuries in extensor we need not repeat the same. The medical witness found that the hymen of the deceased showed fresh tears at 4, 5, and 7 oclock positions with evidence of fresh blood in the margins. He also found presence of bloodstains on the vagina and matted pubic hair of the deceased. Blood was also noticed at nostril and face of the deceased. The hair from the scalp were also found matted with blood. There was "fracture and dislocation of hyoid bone on its greater cornu of left side" (Injury No. 21). In the opinion of the doctor, the deceased had been subjected to rape before murder and that the death was due to the fact of smothering with strangulation and injuries were anti-mortem and homicidal. Injury No. 21, as noticed above, was found sufficient to cause the death of the victim in the ordinary course of nature. According to the report of the Senior Scientific Officer-cum-Assistant Chemical Examiner, Forensic science Laboratory, Government of West Bengal, Ex. 36 semen was detected on the panty (undergarment) and the pubic hair of the deceased. The presence of bloodstains, marks of violence on the face of the deceased and the state of her clothes indicated that the victim had offered resistance but was helpless. Thus there remains no doubt that the deceased had been subjected to rape before her murder. Medical evidence is clear and cogent and Mr Ganguli, the learned Senior Advocate, appearing for the appellant, did not question the same either.

Court's reasoning:
11. All the circumstances referred to above and relied upon by the prosecution have been conclusively established by the prosecution. They are specific and of a clinching nature and all of them irresistibly lead to the conclusion that the appellant alone was guilty of committing rape of Hetal and subsequently murdering her. All the circumstances which have been conclusively established are consistent only with the hypothesis of the guilt of the appellant and are totally inconsistent with his innocence. Not only in the cross- examination of various prosecution witnesses, but even during the arguments, nothing has been pointed out as to why any of the witnesses for the prosecution should have falsely implicated the appellant in such a heinous crime. None of the witnesses had any motive to falsely implicate him. None had any enmity with him. The witnesses produced by the prosecution have withstood the test of cross-examination well and their creditworthiness and reliability has not been demolished in any manner. All the circumstances established by the prosecution, as discussed above, are conclusive in nature and specific in details. They are consistent only with the hypothesis of the guilt of the appellant and totally inconsistent with his innocence. We are therefore in complete agreement with the trial court and the High Court that the prosecution has established the guilt of the appellant beyond a reasonable doubt and we, therefore, uphold his conviction for the offences under Sections 302, 376 and 380