UPENDRA NATH GHOSE Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Two persons Upendra Nath Ghose and Sudhir Pramanik were tried by the Sessions Judge of Khulna and a special jury charged with the offence of murdering one Abala and also with the offence of abducting her in order that she may be murdered or put in danger of being murdered. The Jury by a unanimous verdict have found both these persons not guilty of the offence of murder. By a majority of 6 to 3 they found Sudhir not guilty of the charge of abduction and by a majority of 8 to 1 they found Upendra guilty of the charge of abduction. The learned Judge accepting the verdict of the Jury has acquitted Sudhir of both the charges and has convicted Upendra of the charge of abduction under Section 364, I.P.C. He has sentenced Upendra to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a term of eight years. The case for the prosecution briefly is as follows : One Sumati is the wife of Baroda Ghose, a person of unsound mind. She had a daughter named Abala who was aged between 11-12 years. The appellant, Upendra is aged about 25 years and he is a maternal cousin of Sumati. It is alleged that Upendra came to the house of Sumati on Friday, 9 June 1939 and invited her to attend a function at his house on the next day. He told her that there would be certain festivities in connection with the puja of Satyanarayan. Sumati told Upendra that she would not be able to go on the next day as she had arranged to go to some other place. Thereupon, Upendra proposed that he would take Abala. Sumati agreed to this.

(2.) On Saturday, 10 June 1939 Upendra came to the house of Sumati and Abala went away with him. She was dressed in a Sari with a particular kind of border and underneath she wore a rose coloured petticoat. She also wore a green blouse. At one end of the Sari there was a bunch of keys tied up. She had certain articles of jewellery on her person amongst which may be mentioned some gold madulis. Her hair was tied in a khopa and she had steel hair pins in it. After the girl left with Upendra on 10 June, they were seen on that day it two places by some of the witnesses. With Upendra and the girl Abala was Sudhir. The understanding with Sumati was that the girl would be returned next morning, that is, on Sunday. On Sunday the girl did not return home. Sumati went to Upendra's house in search of her and found that neither Upendra nor the girl had been there. She made enquiries at different places but no trace of the girl could be found. She also got information from one Debendra that there had been no festivities in the house of Upendra. On 13 June 1939 one Nitai, who is a relation of Sumati's husband, lodged a missing information at the thana.

(3.) It is necessary to go back again to the consideration of certain events which had taken place on Monday afternoon. One Arapdi Gazi witness 21, Madar Molla, P.W. 22 and others saw the body of a woman in a veel. They have given a description of the dress of the body and of the way in which the hair of the woman was tied and it seemed to tally with the dress of Abala and with the way in which her hair had been tied when she left with Upendra. These persons however did nothing. On Tuesday the bones of a female skeleton were seen by a number of persons and near these bones, there were lying a sari, a petticoat, a bunch of keys, some sankhas, churis and certain other articles. Information was sent to Sumati and the members of her family and they came and identified the articles of clothing and jewellery as being those of Abala. The girl, when she left with Upendra was wearing certain gold, madulis. They were missing. Upon the discovery of the skeleton and articles of clothing, Nitai again went to the thana with Sumati and there the first information was lodged. The police took up investigation. Evidence has been given that on Tuesday, Debendra, a relation of Upendra, met him and Sudhir. Debendra heard before that Abala had been taken by Upendra from her house and that she was missing. He questioned Upendra and the latter said that he had left the girl in the house of a friend of Sudhir at Basirhat. Sudhir, who was there, denied this. Evidence has also been given that Sudhir and Upendra went to the house of a goldsmith Kalidas swarnakar and there sold five gold madulis. The five madulis have been identified as belonging to Abala. On these fact a Sudhir and Upendra were sent up for trial charged with murder and abduction with the intent that the person abducted should be murdered or be so disposed of as to be put in danger of being murdered. The defence taken by the accused consists of a denial of all the facts alleged against them. A suggestion was made that the girl Abala had accompanied one Charubala to the house of Charubala's father-in-law and that she disappeared from there. It was also suggested that Sumati was carrying on an intrigue with Nitai which was discovered by Upendra and that Upendra had been implicated by Nitai and Sumati because of this.