RAM PRASAD Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Ram Prasad has been convicted by the Additional Sessions Judge of Cawnpore on three separate charges of dacoity under Section 395 of the Indian penal Code and sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment, the sentences to run concurrently, He appeals. The Local Government has applied that the sentence should be enhanced.

(2.) On the facts, a gang of dacoits assembled on the highway between Khajua, and Jahanabad, on the 24 April 1922. Two ekkas passed carrying passengers; the passengers were robbed and maltreated; after another interval, a cart passed carrying passengers; these passengers were robbed and maltreated. Now, it is perfectly clear to us, upon the evidence, that the same gang of dacoits was present during the whole time and that a dacoity was committed in each instance. It is not material whether all the members of the gang took an active part in each dacoity. It is not material if as many as five of them took an active part in any one dacoity They were there. Some of them robbed each ekka and the cart and each act of crime was committed by the same gang in pursuance of the same object. Thus clearly all these offences were committed in the same transaction and Secs.235 and 239 of the Criminal Procedure Code have application.

(3.) The first point taken by the appellant, Ram Prasad, that there, was irregularity in his trial, fails.