RADHA Vs. RAJU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Whether the order of the learned Magistrate discharging the respondents / accused invoking the power under S.245 Cr.P.C. is correct This is the short question arising for consideration in this revision.

(2.) The complainant's husband is facing indictment in a prosecution under S.302 I.P.C. The gist of the allegations against him in the said case is that he, along with others, trespassed into the residential building of a neighbour and caused the death of one Sabu. The complainant is the daughter of the uncle of the deceased. She had married out of her caste. The accused are all relatives of the deceased. The first accused is his brother, the second accused his mother, the third accused his brother inlaw and the 4th accused his sister. The incident in which Sabu met with his death occurred on the night of 11.7.1997. That incident was at about 10 p.m., according to the prosecution. The complainant's husband was taken into custody on the same night.

(3.) More than two months after the said incident, in which Sabu met with his death, the complainant filed a complaint before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Palai. In the complaint she alleged that on that night at about 9 p.m. she was called by the said deceased Sabu to go to his house. The purported purpose was to attempt to settle the disputes between the two neighbours in the presence of the uncle of the complainant. According to the complainant, she obliged and proceeded to the house of Sabu. After reaching there she found that the uncle, who allegedly was available there, was not present there. It dawned on her that the attempt was to pressurise her and to compel her to subscribe her signature to some documents. She refused to oblige. She was wrongfully restrained. She was criminally intimidated. She cried aloud. Hearing her cries, some persons from outside had allegedly entered the house after breaking open the door of the house. In the melee she some how escaped from that house and rushed to her house. It is her case in the complaint that the accused persons are responsible for perpetrating such crimes on her in the house of the deceased Sabu. Along with the deceased they had indulged in criminal acts, she alleged. The obvious suggestion, though not specifically urged, is that Sabu must also have suffered injuries in that melee.