GOMUKHI SEWA DHAM Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has preferred this criminal revision being aggrieved by the order dated 25-3-2004 passed by the Special Judge (Atrocities), Bilaspur, in Criminal Revision No. 111/2004, whereby the learned Special Judge allowed the revision of respondent Nos. 2 to 4 and reversed the order of the Judicial Magistrate, First Class, Katghora, passed in Criminal Case No. 225 of 2004 on 1-3-2004, directed that the cattle in question be handed over to the revisionists as they are the owners of the cattle and further directed that each of the revisionists should execute Supurdginama to the tune of Rs. 2 lakhs to the satisfaction of the Judicial Magistrate and they were further directed that during the disposal of the criminal case without the permission of the Court they will not transfer or sale or otherwise dispose of the cattle which are 270 in number.

(2.) Brie facts leading to filing of this criminal revision, necessary for its disposal are that on 22-12-2003 at about 1.10 p.m. at Village Vilmata when respondent Nos. 2 to 4 along with other six persons were taking 146 bulls, 110 cows, 10 she-calves and 4 calves, they were stopped by certain persons and cattle was taken to Village Deopahari. G.R. Dewan, Station House Officer, Police Station, Katghora was informed over telephone that some cattle have been stopped in Village Deopahari. On receiving this information he reached the spot along with the police staff where the petitioner herein namely, Ravindra Kumar Chourasia gave a report that Vakil Khan and nine others were taking the cattle illegally for the purpose of slaughtering them. In the complaint, it was mentioned that a worker of Gomukhi Seva Dham namely, Mithilesh Dubey was in Village Vilmata, there he saw a herd of cattle and some dispute between the villagers and the persons who were taking the cattle. When the persons who were taking the cattle were asked to show the documents regarding purchase of the cattle, they showed some reluctance in showing the papers. In the meantime, some of them ran away, however, some of them were caught. Running away of some persons made it known that the cattle in question was being taken to the State of Bihar for the purpose of slaughtering. Therefore, with the help of the villagers, the cattle were brought to Gomukhi Seva Dham, Deopahari, which is a registered society, registration certificate is Annexure P-2 and memo of registration is Annexure P-3. The persons who were taking the cattle were Vakil Khan, Tuglaq Khan, Masood Khan, Majhar Khan and Iqbal Khan. Other persons who ran away were Firoz Khan, Musihuddin Khan, Aflatoon Khan and Ikram Khan. These persons were working along with Ismail Khan of Village Jatgaa, District Korba. Since these persons were taking the cattle through the forest area, it further strengthened their plea that the cattle were being taken for slaughtering. Ravindra Kumar Chourasia gave report on 23rd December, 2003. On the basis of this report, the case was registered on 24th of December, 2003, for the commission of offence under Sections 4, 6-A, 6-B and 10 of the Madhya Pradesh Krishik Pashu Parirakshan Adhiniyam, 1959 (for short 'the Adhiniyam, 1959'). The cattle were taken into possession by the Station House Officer. He handed over the same to Ravindra Kumar Chourasia of Gomukhi Seva Dham, Deopahari. After completion of the investigation, charge-sheet has been filed against ten accused persons for the commission of the aforementioned offences and out of the ten accused persons, seven are residents of State of Jharkhand and three arc residents of State of Chhattisgarh.

(3.) Respondent Nos. 2 to 4 herein filed an application before the Judicial Magistrate, Katghora, for handing over the cattle to them on Supurdginama during the pendency of the criminal case. However, it was rejected by the Judicial Magistrate against which respondent Nos. 2 to 4 had preferred a criminal revision as mentioned above, which was allowed, vide the impugned order.