HARNANDAN THAKUR Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has been convicted under Section 429 of the Indian Penal Code and was originally sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for one year, but, on appeal, the sentence was reduced from one year to sis months by the learned Sessions Judge.

(2.) The case of the prosecution is that on 21-3-1961 the petitioner killed a bull with a bhala, when the bull was damaging brinjal crops of his master Nanoo Babu. The bull, it was stated, belonged to Ramnandan Khawas (P. W. 9) of village Basotra, but he had left it at large after branding it, for public utility. P. W. 9, however, denied his ownership of the bull and the prosecution story that he had left the bull after branding it for public, utility.

(3.) The two courts below have, however, held that P. W. 9 turned hostile to the prosecution in denying its story attributing the initial ownership of the bull to him and held that the bull was a public property and that it had some utility in the village.