ASAR ALI AND ORS. Vs. THE STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ALL five appellants namely Abdul Latif, Asar Ali, Magar Ali, Ahmed Ali and Afiruddin alias Aflluddin were found guilty and convicted under Section 396, Penal Code. Each of them was sentenced to transportation for life. Along with them 3 others namely Jabed Ali, Mia Hussain and Akas Ali were similarly convicted and sentenced. They have not appealed. The appellants preferred a joint appeal through the jail authorities. At the hearing two out of the appellants namely Asar Ali and Magar Ali were represented by Mr. Sen. He has presented to us the case of all the five appellants.

(2.) THE trial was with the aid of. a jury, which returned a unanimous verdict of guilty. A separate charge under Section 302 read with Section 34, Penal Code was framed against 3 of the accused. The verdict of the jury was that they were entitled to the benefit of reasonable doubt on this charge.

(3.) LALIT Chandra Singha, P. W. 3 is a bus driver. One of his routes was from Nowgong to Doboka and Hozai. Charali is about 13 miles from Nowgong and Doboka is about 11 miles from Charali. On 25 -1 -1950 he went with his bus to Doboka where he stayed for the night. On 26th morning at about 6 -30 he left Doboka with his bus for Nowgong and left Charali at about 7 a.m. Before leaving Doboka he had learnt that there had been dacoity in the house of one Hazi in the course of the previous night and that Hazi had been murdered. At Charali 5 Muslim immigrants boarded the bus. They said they had to go to Nowgong. He noticed that mud was sticking to their feet, their clothes were dirty and the eyes red indicating that they had passed a sleepless night. The condition in which he found them roused his Suspicion, He took them in his bus to Nanai. There he found Mahendra, P. W. 2 - a police constable, and informed him about the dacoity attended with murder and also about the immigrants in the bus whom he suspected of participation in it. These suspects were pointed out to the constable by the driver's handiman (help -mate). The constable asked one of the five men to get down and interrogated him, A pair of silver bangles Ex. VII and a knife Ex. VIII were found with him. He was then wearing a black coat Ex. IV, The bus was then taken to the police station at Nowgong under the directions of the constable. The five suspects were taken charge of by the police. Their persons were searched. The seizure list Ex. 1(1) was prepared in the presence of P. W. 3 who signed it.