AMAR SINGH Vs. HRIDESH DEEPALI AND ANOTHER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Appellant filed a criminal complaint case against the respondent for the offence punishable under Section 500 IPC, alleging therein that the respondent no. 1, in his weekly newspaper published many articles against the complainant, which were per se defamatory. After recording of statements under Section 200 and 202 Cr.P.C., accused-respondent was summoned to face the trial for the offence punishable under Section 500 IPC. He pleaded not guilty to the allegations and claimed trail.

(2.) Pw 1 Ram Singh and PW 2 Ram Chandra Pandey were examined on behalf of the complainant. After conclusion of the evidence of the complainant, incriminating evidence was put to the respondent under Section 313 Cr.P.C., in which he said that he did not defame the complainant-appellant. After considering the evidence on record, learned Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Almora, vide impugned Judgment and Order dated 25.07.1998, exonerated the accused-respondent of the allegations levelled against him. Aggrieved against the said Judgment and Order, present Criminal Appeal was preferred by the complainant.

(3.) The allegations levelled against the accusedrespondent included cutting and felling of trees, giving a draft of Rs. 5000/- to a Ward Member, indulging in illegal mining, theft and trespass over the Government land etc. It is the submission of learned counsel for the complainant that the friends and relatives of the complainant read those articles and news items, whereby his reputation in the domain of the people was tarnished. The complainant gave a notice, which was wrongly replied by the accused. The statements of the complainant and his witness Doctor B.R.Pande, a Senior Lecturer in the English Department of a college in Haldwani, were recorded, in pre-summoning stage. Having found a prima facie case, the accused was summoned to face the trial for the offence punishable under Section 500 IPC.