RAGHUNATH SINGH Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BABBAN Lal was formerly the patwari of village Bijaura, P. S. Mardah in the district of Ghazipur. In October 1946 he was appointed to officiate as supervisor kanungo of Zahurabad with head -quarters at Qasimabad, to which place he shifted from Bijaura. He has sixteen or seventeen bighas of occupancy land in village Bijaura. It is recorded either in the name of Lallan Prasad, his brother, or in the name of Bhagwan Prasad, a cousin of his. It is said that while he was away, on the morning of 15th June 1947, Babban Lal's house in village Bijaura was looted and razed to the ground.

(2.) ON 19th June 1947, Babban Lal made a report at P. S. Mardah alleging that the appellants and twenty -nine other persons had, on 15th June 1947, in the morning raided his house and, having broken the lock on the outer door of the house, removed the goods lying therein, dismantled the roofs and the walls of the house and removed the door leaves, etc., and threw the clay of the walls into a ditch. The police registered a case under Section 454, Penal Code, against the persons named in the report, and after investigation sent them up for trial.

(3.) THE case for the prosecution was that the father and the grand father of Babban Lal were also patwaris of village Bijaura. The grandfather of Babban Lal had constructed a house in the village. It fell down and its site became parti. The father of Babban Lal constructed another house in the village to the east of the house of Sheopujan Singh, who is one of the appellants. There was a narrow lane between the new house of Sheopujan Singh. In March 1947 Sheopujan Singh demolished the western wall of the house of Babban Lal which had been constructed by his father and started making constructions so as to include that wall and the lane in his house. Babban Lal thereupon instituted a suit against Sheopujan Singh in the Court of Munsif of Saidpur for injunction and damages. This suit offended Sheopujan Singh who, with the help of Raghunath Singh and other appellants, on the morning of 15th June 1947, proceeded to the house of Babban Lal and looted the same and razed it to the ground as stated above.