PULIN BEHARY DAS Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this case, 35 persons appeal against the decision of the learned Additional Sessions Judge of Dacca convicting them under Section 121A of the Indian Penal Code, and against the sentences varying from transportation for life to rigorous imprisonment for three years passed on them on that conviction. In the lower Court, 44 person were placed upon their trial of these, eight were acquitted; one of those convicted has not appealed and is said to have become insane. The remainder are the appellants before us.

(2.) Stated, as shortly as possible, the case for the Crown is that the first appellant, Pulin Behary Das, founded an association known as the Dacca Anusilan Samity, that that association had branches or similar associations affiliated to it throughout Eastern Bengal, that the object for which the association was formed was for the purpose of bringing about revolution by force of arms and depriving the King of the sovereignty of British India, that the appellants were the members of the association and that they had agreed amongst themselves to promote the revolutionary object with which the association was formed: that having associated themselves for this purpose, they have committed an offence under Section 121A of the Indian Penal Code.

(3.) Of the appellants some admit and some deny their connection with the Dacca Anusilan Samity. Those who admit their connection contend that the object with which the Dacca Anusilan Samity was formed was not merely an innocent object but that it was a laudable one, viz., that of improving the physical and mental condition of the Bengali race. They contend 2 that the other societies, which the prosecution says were affiliated to the Dacca Anusilan Samity, were in fact independent societies and had no revolutionary or unlawful object in view.