EMPEROR Vs. WAJID SHEIKH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal has its origin in a dacoity case in which 22 accused were committed to the Sessions on a charge under Section 395, I.P.C., in respect of a dacoity committed in the house of Baldeo Bhagat in village Ranipur, P.S. Maheshpur, on the night between 6 March 1932 and 7 March 1932. Of these 22 six were convicted and 16 acquitted. The appeal is presented against those 16 persons. It is contended by the Grown that all the 22 accused ought to have been convicted. The trial was held with the aid of four assessors of whom three thought that all the 22 accused were guilty while the fourth was of opinion that Taiyab was not guilty and that the remaining 21 accused were guilty.

(2.) The first information was laid at P.S. Maheshpur, 9 miles distant, at 7.30 a.m. on 7 March 1932, against persons unknown. I need not repeat in detail the story of the dacoity which is given in the judgment of the Additional Sessions Judge or the course of the investigation except so far as it affects the appreciation of the evidence of the approvers and the cases of individual accused. The adjacent police station to Maheshpur on the south-east side is Malhati in District Birbhum. On the same night on which the dacoity took place P.W. 36 Nagendra Nath Ghosh, Assistant Sub-Inspector, and P.W. 25 Nalni Kant Das Gupta, Sub-Inspector of Nalhati, went out to make rounds and visited village Barsore at 10.30 p.m. They found four persons, Joyed, Mamlat, Elahi and Rabbani, absent from their houses.

(3.) They picketed their houses with choukidars. At about 2 a.m. they saw Rabbani coming towards his house with 10 or 12 men armed with lathis. Seeing the police Rabbani's party dispersed. Most of them escaped but Rabbani made an unsuccessful attempt to enter his house by scaling the wall and was arrested in doing so. There was dust on his legs and his clothes, were torn. The Assistant Sub-Inspector remained in the village till 8 a.m. but Joyed, Mamlat and Elani did not come home. Meanwhile the Sub-Inspector left for Nalhati with Rabbani. The Assistant Sub-Inspector then left Barsore for the thana going into villages on the way to inquire if any dacoity had been committed in the neighbourhood.