ROSHAN Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellants along with 27 other persons were committed to the Court of Session at mathura for trial under Section 395, I. P. C. , for committing a dacoity at the house of one Sohan lal on 25-7-1949, at 7 p. m. in village Gidoh which is four miles to the south-west of P. S. Kosi, district Mathura. They were further charged under Section 365, I. P. C. , by the learned Sessions judge for abducting Smt. Kalawati, wife of Sohan Lal, with intent to cause her to be secretly and wrongfully confined in the house of one Roshan after abduction during the commission of the aforesaid offence.

(2.) THE learned Judge found that both these offences were not proved against the accused and he, therefore, acquitted all of them of these offences. He, however, found the appellants guilty of the offence under Section 342, I. P. C. for wrongfully confining Smt. Kalawati in the house of roshan and sentenced each of them to nine months' rigorous imprisonment. They have come up in appeal against their conviction and sentence.

(3.) THE prosecution case is that Smt. Gyaso, widow of Tulla, who was the younger brother of misri accused, was living with Misri after the death of her husband. She was turned out by Misri and went to her father's home in village Dudhola. She married someone in village Chant, P. S. Palwal. The accused Misri thought that Sohan Lal who was her brother-in-law, had sold her in marriage and was, therefore, annoyed with him. He convened a panchayat in the village two days before the Amawas of July 1949, and in that panchayat he accused Sohan Lal of having sold away his sister-in-law Smt. Gyaso. Kunwarpal too asked the panchayat to make inquiries into the matter and punish Sohan Lal if he had really sold away Smt. Gyaso. The panches agreed to make an inquiry on 25-7-1949, but the accused Loka asked them not to make an inquiry and so the inquiry could not be made. On 25-7-1949. at about 7 p. m. the accused raided the house of Kunwarpal and Sohan Lal and beat them and looted their property. Thereafter they dragged away Smt. Shanti, wife of Kunwarpal, and Smt. Kalawati wife of Sohan lal. Shanti was left near the house of one Natthan from where she went to the house of her sister and thereafter to her own house. Smt. Kalawati was taken away to an unknown place and was recovered the next day by the police from the house of Roshan accused where she had been locked in a room. A report of the occurrence was made by Kunwarpal on 25-7-1949, at 9-30 p. m. at P. S. Kosi about two hours after the occurrence and in that report all the accused were named.