RADHA NATH DHARA Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This revisional application arises from an order of Sri. M. N. Mukherjee, Assistant Sessions Judge, Burdwan, convicting the petitioners, Radha Nath Dhara, Naran Dhara alias Ram Narayan Dhara, Madhusudan Dhara, Siddheswar Mondal & Furna ChandraDas under Section 147, 1. P. C. and sentencing each of them to suffer rigorous imprisonment for one year.

(2.) The prosecution case briefly was that on the 26-8-1951 at about 6-30 A. M. the complainant Rasomay Mondal, his brothers Kartick Mondal & Madan Mondal & an agricultural labourer Radhu Bauri were transplanting paddy in their land comprising C. S. plot 1062 of Mouza Soknar Beel. According to the complainant he and his brothers had been in continuous possession of the land in question from the time of their father. At about 7 or 7-30 A. M. the five petitioners along with Khoka Pande 'alias' Abanidhar Pande armed with a gun and 7 or 8 Hindusthani 'lathials' came up there. The petitioners challenged Rasomoy Mondal and his brothers and asked them to leave the land. There was an altercation & thereafter the petitioners asked Khoka Pande 'alias' Abanidhar Pande to fire at the complainant and his brothers saying that otherwise they could not be made to leave the land. Thereupon Khoka Pande fired 4 times as the result of which some men of the complainant's party including Kartick Mondal and Madan Mondal were hit with pellets and fell down injured. Radhu Bauri was also hit with pellets and crawled into the Patiban which was close to the disputed land. One Bholanath Misra came up on hearing the row and he was also shot at by Khoka Pandey and was also injured with gun shot wounds. Thereafter other people of the neighbourhood came up and then the petitioners and other men of the accused party ran away. The complainant Rasomoy Mondal went to Kanksa P. S. at 2 P. M. on the same day and lodged the first information report at the thana. After investigation charge-sheet was submitted against five petitioners and Khoka Pande 'alias' Abanidhar Pande. After the preliminary enquiry these accused were placed on trial before the learned Assistant Sessions Judge and a jury of five. There was a charge under Section 307, I. P. C. for attempt to murder against Khoka Pande 'alias' Abanidhar Pande, a charge under Sections 307/; 114, I. P. C. against the 5 petitioners and a charge under Section 148, I. P. C. for rioting being armed with deadly weapons against all the 6 accused.

(3.) The accused all pleaded not guilty, one of the accused Ram Narayan Dhara took the plea of 'alibi' saying that he was a teacher and that on 26-8-1951 in the morning the Education Minister had come to Raniganj and that as a school teacher he had attended the function at Ranigunj and was not present at the place of occurrence. Khoka Pande 'alias' Abandhar Pande stated that though he had a shot gun he had deposited the gun on 24-8-1951 two days before the occurrence with a repairer and that he had been falsely implicated out of enmity. The accused Purna Chandra Das stated that he had taken settlement of C. S. plot no. 1062 of Mouza Soknar Beel from the landlord who had auction purchased the jote at a rent sale and that from Pous 1357 B. S. corresponding to December 1950, that is, about 7 months before the occurrence, he was in possession of the land through his labourer Ananda Bhuinya, and that on the day of occurrence Ananda Bhuinya was transplanting paddy on the land and then the complainant's party came up and tried to take forcible possession of the land in question after driving out Ananda Bhuiya. The other accused merely pleaded not guilty and did not take any definite defence.