Sawal Das vs. State of Bihar, 1974

• The marital relations between the appellant and the deceased wife were not good. One day, the deceased was taken to the room by the appellant.
• The father and mother of the appellant also followed him.
• After some time, noise of crying of the deceased that “save me” was listened by a person who was present at the place of incidence/occurrence immediately informed the police to lodged FIR.
• The police reached to the spot and found that the deceased was killed and burned by the appellant secretly.
• During the trial the FIR lodged by the neighbour was held admissible as part of the same transaction.
• However, the court also opined that FIR may be relevant but will not be admissible in all the cases and where there is unexplained delay in lodging the FIR, it can’t be admissible.
• The trial court convicted Sawal Das, Jamuna Prasad, and Kalawati Devi of murder under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). 
• The trial court sentenced all three to life imprisonment. 
• The High Court set aside the convictions of Kalawati Devi and allowed Jamuna Prasad's appeal. 
• The Supreme Court dismissed Sawal Das's appeal but upheld his conviction under Section 201 of the IPC. The Supreme Court also imposed a sentence under Section 201. 

Whether the incident anything is considered as a part of same transaction?

• The Supreme Court observed that all spontaneous statements in some way connected with the main transaction are not admissible, statement is not admissible u/s 6 only because it is uttered in course of transaction, while no doubt the spontaneity of statement is guarantee of the truth, the rationale for its admissibility under Section 6 is that it is part of same transaction and not merely because it is spontaneous. 
• In the cases of matrimonial disputes, the doctrine is of much importance. In the relation of husband and wife, direct evidence regarding their behaviour to each other are not available because such relation comes under privileged relation, therefore evidences based on circumstances can only be produced.
• The offences relating to women such as rape, sexual harassment, outraging the modesty, there is difficult to get direct evidence because such types of offences are committed in isolation.
• The prosecution has to relay upon the circumstantial evidence and the statement of the victim. The doctrine of res gestae has extended to testimony of the child also. The child having age of insufficient maturity is not capable of giving evidence.
• Moreover, the child who due to fear or pressure or any mental shock is not able to give his testimony is capable of becoming a witness, however, if he is the witness of any incident, anything said by him during the incident or his shouting will be considered as a part of same transaction.

In this case, the husband, his father, and his mother killed his wife. As soon as she was pushed to kill she cried out for help and screamed she is been killed by her family. The children who were playing outside the house also explained that their mother is being killed. The court held the statement of children is admissible as valid res gestae.