BECHAN JHA Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The 12 petitioners, along with three other men who were acquitted on appeal by the Additional Sessions Judge, were convicted by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Madhubani of an offence under Section 295, I.P.C., in that they destroyed a place of worship, to wit the mosque of the Kunjras of Belhwar, with the intention or with the knowledge that you would thereby insult the religion of the Kunjras in particular and of the Musalmans in general.

(2.) They were also convicted under Section 379, I.P.C., of theft of the materials of the mosque, and further of being members of an unlawful assembly with the common object of destroying the mosque, nine of them under Section 143 and the remaining six (who were armed with bhalas) under Section 144, I.P.C. The Magistrate sentenced them all to six months imprisonment under Section 295 and to one month's imprisonment under Section 379, I.P.C., the two sentences to run consecutively, and passed no separate sentence under Secs.144 and 143.

(3.) On appeal the Additional Sessions Judge acquitted three of the 15 men (including one alleged to be armed with a bhala) and reduced the sentence on the remaining 12 to three months rigorous imprisonment under Section 295, and further made the sentence of one month's imprisonment under Section 379 concurrent with it. According to the prosecution, the structure destroyed had been erected as a mosque ten years before the occurrence, and Abdul Waheed, P.W. 5, who had been married to the sister of Kari Kunjra, P.W. 2, came to the village about a year before the occurrence as a maulvi or tutor for the children of the Kunjras and started a madrasa in the mosque and also began to call the azan there.