RAJENDRA PRASAD SINGH Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS application under Sections 435 and 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (hereinafter referred to as 'the Code') has been preferred by the sole petitioner against the order dated 22-8-69 of the Sub-divisional Magistrate taking cognizance against the petitioner.

(2.) IN order to appreciate the point for consideration in this application it will be necessary to mention briefly the facts. On 11-8-69 one Sardha Pahan filed a petition of complaint before the Sub-divisional Magistrate stating therein that about a month earlier the petitioner got cut six Sarna Sal Trees in Village Dulli. Police Station Khelari in the district of Ranchi by employing certain persons. Those trees, according to the complainant, were pious and religious and they were worshipped by the community to which the complainant belongs, as deities. The complainant along with the witnesses named in the petition went to the petitioner and requested him not to get those trees cut. Thereupon the petitioner threatened the complainant and his witnesses with dire consequences. The complainant along with his witnesses then went to opposite party Ram Das Singh, Mukhia of the village and informed him about the incident, who directed them to go to the police station or to the Court. Then the complainant along with the witnesses and Mukhia went to the Ranger of the forest. The Ranger also did not seize the pieces of the cut trees. It was further stated in the complaint petition that on the previous night, i.e., on the night between the 10th and 11th August, 1969, the petitioner lifted the cut timber trees on a truck. The complainant, therefore, prayed that action might be taken against the petitioner under Sections 379 and 295 of the INdian Penal Code. The Magistrate examined the complainant Sardha Pahan on solemn, affirmation as required under Section 200 of the Code and sent a copy of the complaint to Shri J. P. Singh, Magistrate, first class, for enquiry and report by the 1st of September, 1969.

(3.) THE learned Magistrate having considered the petition and the affidavits and after hearing the lawyer of the complainant dismissed the petition of complaint under Section 203 of the Code and recalled the enquiry which he had directed to be made by Shri L. P. Singh. A copy of the said order dismissing the complaint is marked as Annexure 1 to this petition. It will be useful to quote a portion of the observation which reads : ".....It is regretted that a poor and innocent tribal was made an instrument for filing a false case against a responsible police officer. THE conduct of particularly Mukhia is deplored. In view of the fact that the complainant is a tribal who naturally succumbed to the pressure of the Mukhiya and Braj Kishore Sahu and also in view of the fact the ultimately the complainant was unable to shake off the undue and unreasonable pressure of the Mukhiya and others and has gathered courage to seek the whole truth before the Court, I do not consider in necessary to take action to prosecute him Under Section 211 I. P. C....."