Was it murder?

18. Now the question is whether appellants - accused Nos. 1 and 3 are responsible for
culpable homicide of Shashibala.

19. It has been argued by the learned counsel for the accused that no motive has been
proved for the accused persons to murder Shashibala. Reliance is placed on the case
of State of U.P v. Babu Ram reported in AIR 2000 S.C 1735. In para no. 11 it was
observed as follows:

11. We are unable to concur with the legal proposition adumbrated in the impugned
judgment that motive may not be very much material in cases depending on direct
evidence whereas motive is material only when the case depends upon circumstantial
evidence. There is no legal warrant for making such a hiatus in criminal cases as for the
motive for committing the crime. Motive is a relevant factor in all criminal cases whether
based on the testimony of eye-witnesses or circumstantial evidence. The question in
this regard is whether a prosecution must fail because it failed to prove the motive or
even whether inability to prove motive would weaken the prosecution to any perceptible
limit. No doubt, if the prosecution proves the existence of a motive it would be well and
good for it, particularly in a case depending on circumstantial evidence, for, such motive
could then be counted as one of the circumstances. However, it cannot be forgotten that
it is generally a difficult area for any prosecution to bring on record what was in the mind
of the respondent. Even if the Investigating Officer would have succeeded in knowing it
through interrogations that cannot be put in evidence by them due to the ban imposed
by law.

This extract is taken from State of Maharashtra v. Manglya Dhavu Kongil, (1972) 3
SCC 46 : 1972 SCC (Cri) 237 at page 59

When courts purport to disbelieve an eye-witness by reference to his subsequent conduct they
have to be careful not to substitute their own norms of behaviour in a given situation for the
norms of behaviour of that witness. Secondly, people react to situations not always in a uniform
way. A city dweller, a villager or an adivasi will react differently according to the degree of their
sophistication. Moreover, even in the case of individuals of the same class the reaction would
vary with the physical courage, mental equipment and social awareness of the individual. What
is to be seen is whether the subsequent conduct of the witness is so incongruous with his
evidence that it is impossible to believe that what he says is true. Therefore, subsequent
conduct cannot be the sole test of the reliability of a witness. The High Court has caused many
questions based upon conduct for doubting the evidence of these three witnesses.

James M. Andrews, Charles B. Nemerof

The American Journal of Medicine, Vol. 97, Issue 6, S24S32
Published in issue: December 19 1994

Major depression is a common and disabling disorder with far-reaching social and economic
implications.

Depression is a common, but treatable, source of suffering, excess disability, and caregiver strain
in late life. It is important to take a long-term view of the treatment of late-life depression
because of the high risk for relapse, recurrence, and chronic illness. Elderly patients with medical
and neurological illness or bereavement-related depressions also merit greater attention.

The SSRIs possess a class side-effect profile of headache, nausea, and sexual dysfunction.
Individual differences in side effects may distinguish fluoxetine (nervousness, restlessness),
sertraline (diarrhea, loose stools), and paroxetine (dry mouth). The SSRIs all inhibit certain
cytochrome P450 isoenzymes involved in the metabolism of drugs, such as the TCAs, and each
SSRI has been reported to increase plasma concentrations of concomitantly administered TCAs

There are multiple case reports, registries, and uncontrolled studies suggesting that use of SSRIs
might be associated in the increased risk of bleeding events. There is also emerging evidence that
these side effects of SSRIs are due to blockade of serotonin reuptake in platelets and subsequent
platelet dysfunction.

This extract is taken from Nanhar v. State of Haryana, (2010) 11 SCC 423: (2011) 1 SCC (Cri)
175 at page 432

34. HWV Cox Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology, 7th Edn., at p. 936, under title Alcohols,
deals with handwriting after consumption of liquor. While coming to the general behavior after
excessive drinking, apart from other things, it has specifically been noted: Character of
handwriting: There is often difficulty with letters, N, M and W. In the same book, it is further
described that blood (sic alcohol) reaches all the organs, mainly the brain and interferes with
normal brain functions like judgment and coordination of muscular movements. The blood
alcohol level influences the behavior of the person. The amount of alcohol present in the stomach
and intestine has no effect but only indicates the ingestion.