JUDGMENT S.N. JHA AND RAJENDRA PRASAD, JJ. There are two appellants each in these two appeals. They have been convicted under Section 302/34 of the Penal Code and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for life. Appellant Deosharan Yadav has further been convicted under Section 302/109 of the Penal Code and separately sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for life. 2. The case of the prosecution is as follows. In the night of 2.4.1985 Parsuran Yadav of village Siribigha within Atari P.S. of Gaya district was sleeping at his Khalihan. His mother Sonful Devi was sleeping inside the house. At about 11 PM Parsuram heard cries of his mother. He rushed towards the house with a torch. He saw the appellants and two others namely Kishori Yadav and Ramavatar Yadav coming out in the torchlight. They were armed with Fasuli and lathi. The informant out of fear hid himself in the back portion of the ....acent house of one Suraj Singh. Soon thereafter he saw his mother Sonful Devi coming out of the house with bleeding injuries. She reached the nearby khalihan. In the meantime the villagers at the khalihan woke up. In their presence, Sonful disclosed the names of the appellants and the said two others as the persons who had entered in the house forcibly by breaking open the door and there after cut her neck. She said that while appellants Ram Chandra Yadav and Umesh Yadav caught hold of her body and hands, on the command of Deosharan Yadav, Chandradeo Yadav gave a Fasuli blow on her neck cutting the neck upto the teeth. Thereafter Ram Chandra Yadav also gave Fasuli blow on the neck cutting the right eyebrow. 3. Mostt. Sonful Devi was taken to Atari Police Station by Parsuram Yadav along with some of the co-villagers including Rajendra Singh and Chandradeo Yadav. There Parsuram yadav narrated the incident before the Officer. In-charge at about 5.15 AM. After reducing the statement to writing the Officer In-charge sent sonful Devi to the local Hospital where she breathed her last. After she died Section 302 IPC was added to the description of offences in the case which was initially registered under Section 307 etc. of the Penal Code. On receipt of the information about the death of Sonful Devi, inquest was held on her dead body followed by the postmortem. After she died Section 302 IPC was added to the description of offences in the case which was initially registered under Section 307 etc. of the Penal Code. On receipt of the information about the death of Sonful Devi, inquest was held on her dead body followed by the postmortem. La1er statements of the witnesses were re-carded and after completing the formalities charge-sheet was submitted against the appellants and they were thus put an trial. 4. At the trial the prosecution examined six witnesses to prove its case. Besides the informant who was examined as PW 4, Nanhki Kumari, daughter of the deceased who was s1eeping inside the house along with her and had seen the occurrence, was examined as PW 1. Rajendra Singh and Chandradeo Yadav who were present at their respective khalihan had seen the appellants fleeing away from the place of .occurrence and in whose presence the deceased had disclosed the names of the assailants were examined as PWs 2 and 3. Dr. Vijay Kumar who held autopsy on the body was examined as PW 5 while the Investigating Officer Mohan Singh was examined as PW 6. The appellants did not examine any witness in defence. 5. PW 1 Nanhki Kumari who gave the eye witness account of the occurrence stated that she was sleeping inside the house in the courtyard along with her mother on the same cot she woke up on hearing the sound of fall of the door and saw the appellants amongst others with fasuli, lathi and garasa in their hands. One of them also had torch. She identified them in the moon-light. Ram Chandra and Umesh caught hold of her mother, Deosharan asked them to kill her. Thereupon Chandradeo gave fasuli blow an the neck of her mother causing cut injury upto teeth. Thereafter Ram Chandra also gave fasuli blow. After so assaulting her mother they left the place shouting. PW 2 Rajendra Singh stated that when he was sleeping in his khalihan in the night of occurrence, Sonful Devi came out of her house pressing her neck by cloth with bleeding injury. She stated that the appellants had assaulted her by fasuli. The local chaukidar was Informed and Sonful was taken to the Polite Station thereafter to the Hospital where she died. PW 3 Chandradeo Prasad stated in his evidence that while .................. She stated that the appellants had assaulted her by fasuli. The local chaukidar was Informed and Sonful was taken to the Polite Station thereafter to the Hospital where she died. PW 3 Chandradeo Prasad stated in his evidence that while .................. he was sleeping in his khalihan in the night of the occurrence Sonful Devi came out of her house crying and disclosing the names of the appellants as the assailants. He made similar statement 'about sending information to the local Chaukidar and taking Sonfur to the Police Station, and thereafter to the Hospital at the behest of the, Officer In-charge where she died. The informant; PW 4, in his evidence reiterated his fardbeyan version: He disclosed that the reason of the occurrence was that the daughter of appellant Deosharan namely Tetri Devi had died some time back on the day of Holi and the appellants believed that it was on account of the witchcraft of this mother, Sonful Devi, that she died. 15 days after death of Tetri, Dewas was arranged to find out as to whether the death was on account of-any witchcraft. Later a panchayati was also held in which the panchas declared that the appellants were unnecessarily trying to involve Sonful Devi as responsible for the death of Tetri. After the Panchayati and Dewas his son Chandradeo Yadav and other family members used to abuse Sonful and give threat to kill her and finally they succeeded in killing her in the fateful night. It may be mentioned here that in the fardbeyan also the informant had stated that the occurrence took place in the above background. 6. It was submitted on behalf of the appellants that the trial court has placed reliance on the oral dying declaration• of the deceased but considering the nature of her injury it was not possible for the deceased to make any statement. Out attention was drawn to the evidence of Dr. Vijay Kumar who had performed the postmortem to the effect that due to injury on the neck, there was no possibility of movement of the neck and therefore it was also not possible for the victim to speak. Out attention was drawn to the evidence of Dr. Vijay Kumar who had performed the postmortem to the effect that due to injury on the neck, there was no possibility of movement of the neck and therefore it was also not possible for the victim to speak. It may be mentioned here that the doctor found the following injuries on the person of tire deceased :-- "(i) Incised wound 6” x 2" x second cervical vertibra deep over right chin to right side of neck-All the structures including blood vessels and second cervical vertibra were found cut. (ii) Incised wound 1" x 1" x muscle deep over right eye-brow." 7. The submission of the counsel seems to be attractive but in view of the authorities on the subject difficult to accept. It should be kept in mind that the substance of the statement of the victim found enough corroboration not only from the informant and her daughter Nanhki Kumari but also from the independent witnesses such as PW 2 Rajendra Singh and PW 3 Chandradeo Prasad and it is in the context of their evidence that the question as to whether the prosecution case of the deceased making the alleged statement is belief worthy or not should be considered. It should be kept in mind that what the doctor said about the possibility of the deceased making statement was his opinion. It is to be noted that for giving this opinion the doctor did not assign any reason. In fact he said so for the first time in his evidence in cross-examination. Injury no. 2 was minor injury on the eye-brow portion and has to, be ignored by all counts except for the purpose of finding assurance to the prosecution case as to manner of occurrence. So far as Injury no. 1 is concerned, as noticed above, the was towards the chin up to the teeth portion and there was no injury on the front portion of the neck. The power of speech is controlled by the laryn, trachea vocal cord, wind pipe etc. Apparently there was no such injury on any of these parts and therefore it cannot be said conclusively that the cut on the side of the neck from Chin to teeth could deprive the victim of the power to make speech. The power of speech is controlled by the laryn, trachea vocal cord, wind pipe etc. Apparently there was no such injury on any of these parts and therefore it cannot be said conclusively that the cut on the side of the neck from Chin to teeth could deprive the victim of the power to make speech. The trial court has relied on authorities and referred to cases as noticed in the text books to the effect that persons after cut-throat injury of the .type found on the deceased were able to speak and make statement before their death. 8. All the witnesses consistently said that Sonful Devi came out of her house in a fit and after crying for some time .disclosed the name of the appellants before she became unconscious. She remained so until she breathed her last in the hospital. Once it is accepted that despite her injuries the deceased was in a position to speak the evidence of the witnesses to the effect that she disclosed in her statement that some appellants caught hold of her while others assaulted, has to be given due weight. The occurrence; after all, was seen by the Nankhi Dei who was sharing the same cot with the deceased, being her daughter. She was thus a natural witness. At the time of her deposition her age was assessed as 20 years. The occurrence having taken place 2 years ago she was 18 years of age at the time of occurrence. 9. It was submitted that being closely related with the deceased her evidence cannot be taken on its face value and it requires scrutiny with due care and caution. The statement has, been noticed only as a broad proposition. It need hardly be emphasised that other aspect of the evidence of a 'related' witnesses is that he/she is not supposed to falsely implicate an innocent and thereby, facilitates escape of the real guilt, except where the crime is committed by unknown and not seen. What is significant in this case is the consistency of evidence of the witnesses inter se and their previous statements before the police which is evident from the fact that hardly any material contradiction or omission was pointed out in course of their cross-examination. What is significant in this case is the consistency of evidence of the witnesses inter se and their previous statements before the police which is evident from the fact that hardly any material contradiction or omission was pointed out in course of their cross-examination. The statement of Nanhki Kumari finds due corroboration from the evidence of other witnesses, two of whom are independent witnesses, besides dying statement of the deceased. According to the witnesses they were present at the khalihan to oversee the wheat crops. Time of the occurrence being the time of harvesting wheat crops, their presence at the khalihan seems to be natural. The I.O. also found existence of khalihan. Though the distance between the khalihan and the house inside which the occurrence took place has not been stated by the I.O., PW 4 disclosed the distance as 100 yards. The distance was not long enough which the Deceased could not cover despite her physical- agony on account of the injuries. Besides evidence of PW 4 to the effect that the cries of the deceased were heard by the informant and others also indicates adjancy between the khalihan were the witnesses were sleeping and the informant's house. 10. The Investigating Officer who visited the place of occurrence found that the cot lying in the court-yard contained blood marks. There was blood beneath the cot as well as on the Pidha. There were also blood stains on the wall by the side of the cot. He found one of the doors on the ground corroborating the evidence of Nanhki Kumari that she woke up after hearing the sound of fall of the door. 11. Submission was also made about the identification of the appellants. There is absolutely no substance in the submission that there was no means of identification. Firstly, according to PW 1, it was moon-light. Secondly, one of the appellant also hap a torch. The appellants were also identified by PW 4 by means of torchlight. On the point of identification it should be kept in mind that the appellants are co-villagers and close neighbours and there, could be no difficulty in identifying them even in the moon-light or flash of torchlight and therefore the evidence on the point of identification cannot be said to be doubtful. 12. On the point of identification it should be kept in mind that the appellants are co-villagers and close neighbours and there, could be no difficulty in identifying them even in the moon-light or flash of torchlight and therefore the evidence on the point of identification cannot be said to be doubtful. 12. The occurrence took place as the appellants believed that the deceased was the cause of death of Tetri, daughter of one of them, Deosharan Yadav, which led to Dewas and Panchayati. Having failed to get the deceased indicated they started giving threat. In the fateful night of 2.4.1985 they apparently found the situation convenient when they made good their entry by breaking open the door and accomplished the mission. In the process, however, they wee seen not only by PW 1, who in fact saw them committing the crime with her own eyes, but also by PWs 3 and 4 while they were retreating. Their presence and act of retreating from the house at an unusual hour, in the dead of night is strong circumstance about which there is no explanation. No attempt was made to explain their presence under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. 13. The trial Court in a well considered judgment has taken into account the various aspect of the case and come to the conclusion that the prosecution has succeeded in proving its case beyond all reasonable doubt. We find nothing in the record to warrant any interference in appeal. 14. In the result, the appeals are dismissed. The appellants are on bail. Their bail bonds are cancelled and they are directed to surrender t9 serve the remainder of the sentence. If they do not surrender within four weeks, the Court below will take steps to apprehended them for the purpose in accordance with law. 15. Shri Anil Kumar Singh will be paid his fee at the prescribed rate by the Patna High Court Legal Aid Committee. Let 15t and last page of this judgment be furnished to him to facilitate the payment.