APPACHAN Vs. R RAJU GOWDER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS revision petition under Ss. 435 and 439 Crl P. C. has been preferred by the three persons who were accused in P. R. C. 20 of 1965 on the file of the Sub-Magistrate, Coonoor. The police filed a charge sheet against them for offences under Ss. 392, 394, 397 and 392 read with S. 114 I. P. C. It will be noted that S. 397 i. P. C. is an offence triable exclusively by the court of session. That was why the case was taken on file as preliminary register case, to be enquired into under the provisions of Ch. XVIII of the Code.

(2.) BRIEFLY, the case of the prosecution was that at the instance of one Menon, p. W. 1 Raju Gowder, owner of a big coffee and tea estate, employed the third accused as a writer in that estate. For unsatisfactory work and absence without leave, his services were dispensed with in or about July 1965. Accused 1 and 2 are uncles of the third accused. On 6-10-1965 at about 8. 30 a. m. the third accused came to the bungalow of P. W. 1 Accused 1 and 2 demanded the settlement of the accounts of the third accused. P. W. 1 wanted Menon to be sent for. At that time the second accused caught hold of P. W. 1's hand; and the first accused took out a knife and pointed it towards his chest saying that unless he settled the account of the third accused, he would be murdered. P. W. 1 promised to settle the account accused 1 and 2 pulled him out of the chair, took him to another room and pushed him down P. W. 1's shirt was torn. At that time P. W. 1's daughter-in-law, P. W. 4, came and protested. The first accused caught hold of her, but she went out. She asked the driver of the motor car to go to the police station and report. But the three accused themselves got into the car and went away. P. W. 1 had kept cash of rs. 10 and some change and a key. The first accused took them away, and the second accused took away the account-book. The Sub-Inspector of Police, coonoor, came within about half an hour and recorded the complaint of P. W. 1 Ex. P. 1. He recovered the torn shirt of P. W. 1 (M. O. 1) and also sometime later, his dhoti M. O. 2 P. W. 1 was sent to the hospital. He had some injuries on his elbow, hip, leg and head.

(3.) THE prosecution examined, besides P. Ws. 1 and 4. P. W. 2 Nanjan, the servant of P. W. 1 and the driver of the car, P. W. 3. The learned Sub Magistrate, without examining the other witnesses, and without questioning the accused, discussed the evidence in detail and held that the case was grossly exaggerated and, indeed, false, bristling with vital discrepancies, and that it would be, therefore, sheet was of time to commit the accused to the court of Section. He consequently discharged the accused under S. 207-A (6) Crl. P. C.