BHADO MANDAL Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners are five in number. Petitioner Bhado Mandal has been convicted under Sections 148 and 325, Indian Penal Code, and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two months on the first count with no separate sentence on the second count. Petitioner Lachman Mandal has also been convicted under Section 148 of the Code and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two months as well as under Section 324 of the Code under which no separate sentence has been imposed upon him. Each of the remaining three petitioners has been convicted under Sections 147 and 323, Indian Penal Code, and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one month on the first count with no separate sentence on the second. All the five petitioners have further been convicted under Section 24 of the Cattle Trespass Act, but no separate sentence has been imposed upon any of them thereunder.

(2.) At the time when this application was admitted in this Court, a rule was issued upon the petitioners to show cause why the sentences imposed upon them should not be enhanced if their convictions were upheld.

(3.) Briefly stated the facts are these: On 10th August, 1958, in the afternoon when the complainant Kailu Gope (P. W. 2) went to see his field containing maize, rahar and paddy seedlings situate in Kahuiya Bahiar in village Goradih, he found five heads of buffaloes grazing his paddy seedlings. He seized the animals and proceeded to take them to the pound. But, in the meantime, all the five petitioners came up in a body carrying various weapons. Petitioner Bhado Mandal was armed with a bhala, petition Lachman Mandal with a pharsa and the other three petitioners with a lathi each. They forcibly rescued the animals and in that process each of the petitioners assaulted Kailu (P. W. 2) with their respective weapons. Petitioner Bhado assaulted Kailu with the iron gulli of bis bhala on his nose. Petitioner Lachman Mandal aimed his pharsa at Kailu who in warding off the blow sustained injuries between his fingers. The remaining three petitioners also assaulted Kailu on different parts of his body with their lathis.