KIZHAKKEPPALLIKL MOOSA Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE three appellants together with four others were tried by the Sessions Judge of Kozhikode for the offences under Sections 147, 332, 307 and 477 of the I. P. C. The case against them was that they formed themselves into an unlawful assembly with the common object of assaulting certain officers of the Sales Tax department who were conducting a surprise inspection of the shop belonging to one of the accused and in furtherance of that object they caused hurt to one officer and attempted to murder another and also snatched away the account books of the shop which had been taken by the officers for inspection. The learned judge acquitted four of the accused persons and convicted the appellants for offences under Sections 332 and 477 sentencing each to rigorous imprisonment for a period of one year on the first count and four years under the second, the sentences to run concurrently.

(2.) THE prosecution case briefly is this: Pws. 1, 2 and 3 are Intelligence Officers attached to the Kozhikode Circle of the Sales Tax Department. While conducting surprise inspections of shops to detect cases of Sales Tax evasion, they entered the shop of the first appellant (accused 1 ). P. W. 1 asked the accused to produce his account books for inspection, to which the latter replied that the books were not available in the shop. In the meanwhile P. Ws. 2 and 3 noticing an open bag with account books kept in another room entered the room and brought out the bag. They then began to examine the books. Accused 3 who had come to the shop by this time declared that the books were his and demanded their return. When the officers refused the demand and continued their examination, the third accused hit P. Ws. 2 and 3 on their hands pausing them to drop the books on the floor. Then some of the persons who had gathered there began assaulting them while some others collected the fallen books and papers and handed them over to accused 3 who carried them away. During the assault P. W. 1 fell down on the floor. Then accused 1 got up on his chest and began to throttle him. P. W. 4 a peon who had accompanied the officers seeing them assaulted rushed up to the nearby police station and reported the matter to the Sub-Inspector. The latter immediately proceeded to the scene and dispersing the crowd, rescued the officers.

(3.) ALL the accused except accused 1 denied having had anything to do with the incident. According to accused 1 when he was sitting in the shop -- which he says does not belong to him --with a bag entrusted to him by accused 3, the three officers and P. W. 4 entered the shop. They took the bag and paying no heed to his protest they started to walk away with it. When he tried to snatch it from, them, they assaulted him. Afterwards the police arrived there and arrested him.