BALKRISHNA RAGHUNATH SAWANT Vs. JAGANNATH SITARAM AKARTE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal against the order of acquittal passed by the learned Sessions Judge, Jalgaon setting aside the order of conviction passed by the Judicial Magistrate, Jalgaon in a case in which a Police Inspector prosecuted the Special Public Prosecutor for having used defamatory language.

(2.) THIS matter arose because of a Sessions case on account of communal riots, which broke out at Jalgaon on May 8, 1970, As a result of these riots forty -three lives were lost and several houses set on fire. The complainant was the Police Inspector attached to the city police station, Jalgaon and was posted on duty in the locality where Maniyar Mohalla and Jumma Mashid were situated. It was the complainant who had given the first information reports in respect of some of the offences alleged to have been committed in the Muslim localities and he was, therefore, the person who had investigated into some of the offences. It has also come on record that the complainant Police Inspector was suspended on May 25, 1970 pending inquiry into his conduct in connection with the communal riots which took place at Jalgaon on May 8, 1970. It is in these circumstances that the. complainant was examined as a witness in Sessions Case No. 1 of 1971 by the accused who was the Special Public Prosecutor for conducting the prosecution in that sessions case.

(3.) IT appears that at that time the complainant also filed a separate application requesting the learned Sessions Judge to take necessary action against the accused because of the defamatory words which he used against him, but the learned Sessions Judge did not take any action and suggested to the complainant that if he is so advised, he can take recourse to law. It is in these circumstances that the complainant came to file a complaint against the accused. It is in these circumstances also that the accused came to be charged with the offence punishable under Section 500, Indian Penal Code for having uttered the defamatory words against the complainant on April 20, 1971.