SHAMSHER BAHADUR SAXENA Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal on behalf of ten persons, who, along with nine others, were put on trial before Mr. Gouri Shankar Prasad Sinha, 1st Assistant Sessions Judge at Muzaffarpur, for offences under Sections 120B, 366 and 368, Penal Code. Out of these 19 persons who were on trial, one of them was Ramautar Nonia, who was charged only under Section 366, Penal Code, and he was acquitted and the present appellants, except appellant Sarbasia Tatmain, were convicted under Sections 120B and 368, Penal Code, whereas Mosammat Sarbasia Tatmain was convicted under Sections 120B and 363, Penal Code. Appellants 1 to 4, viz., Shamsher Bahadur Saxena, Maharaj Bahadur Saxena alias Laloo, Ramgulam Verma and Dayanand Singh alias Munji were each sentenced to six years' rigorous imprisonment under Section 368, Penal Code; appellants 5 to 8, viz. Asharfi Jha, Bhikhari Sonar, Bengali Sah and Ramnandan Kahar alias Mandan Kahar were each sentenced to four years' rigorous imprisonment under Section 368, appellant 9 Rajmangal Devi was sentenced to two years' rigorous imprisonment under Section 368 and appellant 10 Sarbasia Tatmain was sentenced to two years' rigorous imprisonment both under Sections 120B and 366, but her sentences were to run concurrently. Appellants 1 to 9 were not awarded any separate sentence under Section 120B, because each one of them had already been sentenced to various terms of imprisonment under Section 368.

(2.) In August, 1951, investigation of G.P.B.S. No. 11(4) of 1951 was ordered to be reopened, and accordingly Sub-Inspector Habibullah Khan took charge of that case on 29-9-1951. After reading the case diary of that case, and contacting the spies, he came to know that appellants 1 and 2, viz., Laloo and Shamsher, along with several other persons of other places, visited North Bihar Abla Anath Ashram at Laheriasaria on 30-9-51, and searched on 1-10-51 the Abla Anatri Ashram and recovered two letters (Exs. 20 and 20-A), and the contents of those letters corroborated the information which he had got from the spies, and consequently he started for Muzaffarpur. After reaching Muzaffarpur he contacted the Officer-in-charge of the town thana on 3-10-51, and requested him to depute some body to help him in the investigation. J. N. Chatterjee Sub-Inspector, P. W. 92, and some constables were deputed to help him. All of them went to Bhartiya Anath Ashram in Tinkutia and raided it. He recovered certain papers after search in presence of certain witnesses on that day and scrutinized them. The next day, that is, on 4-1-51, he again went to the Ashram and searched it, as the search on the first day was not finished, and recovered some more papers from there. He, along with M. N. Jha, Sub-Inspector, town thana (P. W. 81) who had also been in the meantime deputed to help him in the investigation by the Officer-in-charge of the police-station, went inside the Ashram and found 29 girls and women in that Ashram. M. N. Jha was directed to take down statements of those girls as they were found weeping. He, therefore, recorded the statements of those girls and women; and the first girl, viz., Dukhni, P. W. 1, who was examined by him disclosed a cognizable offence, and consequently her statement, Ex. 17, was treated as fardbeyan, on which a formal first information report, Ex. 17/a, was drawn up. As the case was within the jurisdiction of town police station so M. N. Jha started investigation and Sub-Inspector (P. W. 19) began to assist him till the investigation of the case came in his charge on 4-12-51, and he after completing the investigation submitted charge-sheet against these appellants and others on 4-2-52.

(3.) The case of the prosecution as disclosed in the fard-beyan of Dukhni, P. W. 1, is that she was married to Ramchander Soori of Sitamarhi four years ago. 27 or 28 days before the date of the first information report, at about 8 a.m., she had gone from her house to take her bath in river Lakhnidei with a Sari and a Iota. There she met Sarbasia accused, the mother of Sunma, who, was a resident of Mahalla Puranibazar. Sarbasia advised Dukhni that she should marry somebody else, because she was often beaten by her Sasural people. Dukhni at first did not agree, but after much persuasion and temptation she agreed to go to the house of her Nandosi at Muzaffarpur for a short time. Dukhni was brought by Sarbasia to Sitamarhi railway station and then by train to Muzaffarpur, where she was taken to the house of Shamsher accused. In the evening, after dark, Dukhni was taken by Shamsher and his wife to the Bhartiya Anath Ashram, from where she was recovered. It is alleged by Dukhni that Shamsher, Lallu, Deonandan alias Muniji, Pitaji, namely, Ram-gulam Verma, Didi Rajmangal, besides others were keeping wrongfully confined many other girls in the Ashram and Dukhni named some of those girls in her first information. Dukhni further stated that she wanted to go to her Nandosi, Ajodhya Sha, but she was not allowed to go by the aforesaid accused persons, and was always kept confined in the Ashram, and the accused Bhikhari and Bengali, the servants of the Ashram, were keeping watch over her and the other girls. It is further alleged that the aforesaid accused persons used to threaten the girls with assault if they wanted to make any trouble and consequently they always kept quiet. It is said that these appellants and accused Dr. Satnarain and Nandkumar who were also working in the Ashram and who have since been acquitted, use to keep concealed and confined the abducted and kidnapped girls, who use to be brought in the Ashram The names of some of these girls were changed in the Ashram and during her stay in the Ashram six girls were sold on the pretext of their marriage. It is further said that the aforesaid accused persons used to keep agents for abducting and kidnapping girls and bringing them to the Ashram. The prosecution case was that there was a conspiracy amongst the appellants and the other accused persons, who have been acquitted, and in pursuance of that conspiracy young girls used to be abducted and kidnapped and brought to the Ashram for being sold on taking large sums of money. The police after recovering the abducted girls from the Ashram kept them in the Ashram of Kuber Singh that very town, after recording their statements.