14. In the common course of human conduct, it has necessarily to be presumed that one facing a situation which may result in his death would resort to everything possible under his command to escape from the clutches of death. This is an inescapable inference and a legitimate presumption based on common course of human conduct and also on the basis of common course of natural events. This presumption is available as regards the conduct expected of Shibu. Had he fallen into water without suffering an electric shock resulting in his being immobilized, the remains of that robust young boy of 20 years would not have been found without any evidence of struggle in the water. The postmortem report clearly shows that there was no attempt on the part of the deceased to escape from the water. There is no indication that the victim had struggled in the water. What does it show? Either it was a dead body that dropped into the water or that what fell in the water was an incapacitated, may be a live, body, which could not, but drown and die. Electrical injuries, indisputably, can lead to immediate unconscious stage. Dr.Reddy speaks of this in his book referred to above. A hale and healthy youngster, Shibu, playing in the water would never accept for himself a situation of death in the water. The urge to live and be alive would have only prompted him to escape from water. Self-preservation of one’s life would be the only urge that would surge if one is conscious while drowning. Every available reflexes will motive action to escape death. They are part of the thought process. This is why self-preservation is treated as fundamental in nature, sacred, precious, inviolable and the necessary concomitant of the right to life. This aspect is indefeasible part of human conduct. On the evidence relating to the body of the victim, the inescapable conclusion is that Shibu suffered electric shock and was resultantly thrown into the water from which he could not save himself, he having been either dead, unconscious or wholly immobilized excluding him from even attempting to get out of the water.
