PRAFULLA KUMAR GHOSH Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner Prafulla Kumar Ghosh was tried with some others, and convicted under Ss. 448 and 323 I. P. C. and sentenced to R. I. for 3 months and to a fine of Rs. 50/- respectively. The joint appeal preferred by him and the only other accused (Harish Chandra Ghosh) convicted was dismissed by the learned Sessions Judge, and the present petitioner has alone come up to this Court in revision.

(2.) The parties belong to Khowai, the Head Quarters of the Sub-Division of that name. The prosecution case was that on the night of 9-5-55, at about 10 P. M. Satish Chandra Deb (P. W. 1) was counting his cash inside his house and Nepal Ghosh (P. W. 2) was sitting near him, as they were to go to attend a musical entertainment that night at the house of Karuna Mazumdar, when the petitioner, Harish Chandra and two others who were acquitted by the Magistrate came there and the petitioner and Harish Chandra entered inside the room caught Nepal by the hair, beat him and dragged him out. Satish Chandra (P. W. 1) intervened but was pushed out. The other two companions of the Petitioner stood outside the house. The wife of P. W. 1 raised an alarm and Govinda (P. W. 3) the brother of P. W. 1 came there from his house, and they managed to catch and detain the petitioner, while his companions made good their escape. Biseswar (P. W. 5) who had also come with Nepal, but gone away to answer call of nature came back and was sent to the Police station along with another to give information to the Police. The Police station is about a quarter of a mile from the spot, and the Otficer-in-charge (P. W. 6) came there at once, recorded the F. I. R., arrested the petitioner, seized a torch from him with which he was alleged to have beaten Nepal, and after investigation put up a charge sheet in Court.

(3.) The defence was that petitioner alone had gone to the house of P. W. 1 to fetch Nepal at the instance of persons who had met at the house of Bharat Ghosh as they disapproved of the proposed marriage between Nepal and the widow of a deceased brother of accused Ramesh Ghosh. It was admitted that he entered the house of P. W. 1 but it was denied that he assaulted Nepal. It is not disputed that he was detained and handed over to the Officer-in-charge, and the defence evidence also goes to show that the Officer-in-charge went to the house of P. W. 1 soon after the alleged occurrence.