STATE OF MAHARASHTRA Vs. PANDURANG RAMJI SANAP

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A question of some importance has been raised in this revision application and the question is whether in the name of exercising his power under Section 226 of the Code of Criminal Procedure it is competent to a Sessions Judge to delete a charge altogether when an accused person is committed to his Court on that charge.

(2.) THE facts necessary to be stated for this purpose are briefly these. In 1967, one Sonu Bhuwad applied for a Congress ticket to contest the Zilla Parishad elections from Tala constituency in Taluka Mangaon, District Kolaba. He was not, however, successful in getting that ticket and hence he changed over to Sampurna Maharashtra Samiti and that party gave him the necessary ticket and he fought and won the election. As a result of the election, the Mangaon Taluka Panchayat Samiti which consisted of 17 seats comprised 9 Samiti candidates versus 8 Congress candidates. In that situation Sonu Bhuwad was naturally considered to be the decisive factor. Elections for the posts of Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Taluka Panchayat Samiti were to be held on August 16, 1967 and the case of the prosecution was that in order to ensure that, Sonu Bhuwad would cast his vote in favour of the Congress candidate, he was taken to Pen by complainant Salunkhe on August 13, 1967. When Salunkhe and Bhuwad were returning to Mangaon the same evening, their jeep was, according to the story of the prosecution, halted by a number of persons, including accused Nos. 1 to 4, at a spot near Kolad on Bombay -Goa Road. Those persons inquired if Bhuwad was in the jeep. In the meantime, some more persons joined the mob and in all 100 or 150 persons had collected. Accused Nos 5 to 8 were, according to the prosecution, among them. All the eight accused, according to the prosecution, removed Bhuwad from the jeep and he was thereafter kidnapped in the car of accused No. 1 to a place known as Indapur and detained there till August 16, 1967. On the 16th, Bhuwad was taken to Mangaon in the hope that he would cast his vote in favour of the Samiti candidate, but as things would have it, he cast his vote in favour of the Congress candidate. Members of the Samiti group, including accused Nos. 1 to 8, having learnt that, the story of the prosecution was that these accused again put Bhuwad in a car and took him to Roha where he was coerced to swear an affidavit before the Taluka Executive Magistrate.

(3.) THE grievance of the State in this revision application is that the learned Sessions Judge had no such power to delete the charge under Section 193 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code. It is conceded that the Judge could at best alter or suitably modify a charge under Section 193, for instance, by adding Section 108 instead of Section 34 to Section 193 of the Indian Penal Code.