DHIRENDRA NATH BERA Vs. NURUL HUDA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a reference made to a Full Bench by a Division Bench in a criminal matter.

(2.) One Mokshoda Dassi, mother of Dhirendra Nath Bera, who was the complainant, had been ill for sometime & while their son was away from home on 3-9-1949 she died. On his return home late in the evening Dhirendra Nath Bera found that his mother had died & with the aid of his friends & neighbours he took the dead body to the Panshilla Hindu cremation ground & placed the body on a funeral pyre which was then lighted. It appears that the accused Nurul Huda had lodged an information at the Shyampore Police Station in which it was alleged that the petitioner had beaten or throttled his mother to death. The accused opposite parties Nurul Huda, Basiral Huq, Sanwaral Huq, Jahet Rahaman, & Dr. Niamutulla--accompanied by a Sub-Inspector of the Shyampore Police Station--hurried to the cremation ground & found that the funeral pyre had been lighted. A complaint was again made to the Sub-Inspector that the deceased had been done to death & at the instance of the accused opposite parties the body was removed from the funeral pyre & taken to the morgue. A postmortem examination, however, revealed that there were no signs of injury on the body & that the deceased died a natural death. Later the final report of the police was to the effect that the information lodged was false.

(3.) The petitioner filed a complaint in the Court of a Magistrate at Uluberia charging the accused opposite parties with offences under Sections 297 & 500, Penal Code. The accused were tried by the learned Magistrate & were found guilty on both charges. Each was convicted under Section 297, Penal Code, & sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for three months. Each was also convicted under Section 500, Penal Code & sentenced to pay a fine of Rs. 100 & in default of payment, to suffer simple imprisonment for two months. Out of the fines, if realised, the sum of Rs. 300 was to be paid to the complainant Dhirendra Nath Bera as compensation.