MANGAL RAM Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE eleven appellants along with two others were tried by the Additional Sessions Judge, Alipore, with the aid of a jury. All of them were charged under section 148 I. P. C. Appellant No. 5, Fulena Ram and appellant No. G, Mohant Ram were further charged under section 302/34 I. P. C. The jurors found appellants Nos. 5 and 6 not guilty of the charge under section 302/34 I. P. C. and they were acquitted of the charge. The others except appellants No. 1, Munglal Ram. No. 9, Shewjatan Ram and No. 11, Meghu Das, were found guilty under section 147 I. P. C. Each of them was sentenced to suffer R. I. for one year. The other appellants were found guilty under section 148 I. P. C. and were sentenced to R. I. for eighteen months each. The two co-accused were however acquitted.

(2.) THE prosecution case is that there are two rival parties of the tannery workers at Tangra, one being led by Mahindra Singh and the other by appellant No. 2, Tokkan Ram. On the Holi festival day i. e. , on the 27th, March 1956, at about 5-30 p. m. , the party of Mahindra Singh hired a dancing boy and dance and music were going on at the crossing of Tangra Road and Paymental Garden Lane where several hundreds of persons assembled to witness the same. Some of the members of appellant Tokkan Ram's party also went there. Appellant No. 5, Fulena Ram wanted the boy to dance for their party but his demand was met with a refusal. Thereafter, the men of Tokkan Ram's party went back to Tokkan Ram's house which was nearby and came back variously armed and attacked the members of Mahindra Singh's Party. Appellant No. 6, Mohant Ram and appellant No. 5, Fulena Ram, struck one Nasidi Ram of Mahindra's party with a spear as a result of which he died. In the meantime, P. W. 8, Sub-Inspector, Nihar Ranjan Guha Roy of the Entally Police Station went on a patrol trip in ;a police car accompanied by two police constables. Seeing them, the rioters ran away and dispersed. One of the constables was sent to the thana to get reinforcement. P. W. 9, Sushil Banerjee, then arrived on receiving this information with a police force. He arrested fifteen persons. The rioters then threw brick-bats at the police party which caused injury to P. W. 9, Sushil Banerjee. The two police constables were also injured. Sushil Banerjee left for the thana and from there to the hospital for treatment. In the meantime, another police force came from Lal Bazar Head Quarters end they arrested about 150 persons and took all of them to the police station. P. W. 8, Nihar Ranjan Guha Roy, Sub-Inspector, found the body of Nasidi Ram near the lamp post. He collected the arms left by the rioters and himself lodged a First Information Report.

(3.) THE defense of the appellants was, inter alia, that they had nothing to do with the rioting or with the murder of Nasidi Ram. They stated that it was Mahindra's party who murdered Nasidi Ram and two others, Jethulal and Babulal. The common object of the unlawful assembly was stated to be to assault the members of the rival group of Mahindra Singh.