EMPEROR Vs. NIRMAL JIBAN GHOSE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By a Government of Bengal Notification dated 15 December 1933 a Special Tribunal was appointed by the Governor-in-Council under the provisions of sub-Ss. (1) and (2) of Section 4, Bengal Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1925, for the trial under that Act of thirteen persons who were accused of offences specified in Schedule 1 of the Act. The accused persons were the following: 1. Nirmal Jiban Ghose; 2. Kamakhya Charan Ghosh; 3. Brojo Kishore Chakravarty; 4. Ram Krishna Roy; 5. Sonatan Roy; 6. Nanda Dulal Singh: 7. Sukumar Sen Gupta; 8. Bijoy Krishna Ghose; 9. Purnananda Sanyal; 10. Manindra Nath Choudhury; 11. Saroj Ranjan Das Kanungo; 12. Santi Gopal Sen and 13. Sailesh Chandra. Ghose. When the trial of the case began the Commissioners were informed by the Public Prosecutor that one of the accused persons, namely Santi Gopal Sen, was absconding and could not be produced before the Tribunal. At the same time on an application made on behalf of the Crown the Commissioners tendered a pardon on the terms and conditions imposed by Section 8, Bengal Criminal Law Amended Act, 1925, to the accused Sailesh Chandra Ghosh, namely on the condition of his making a full and true disclosure of the whole circumstances within his knowledge relative to the offence and to every other person concerned whether as principal or abettor in the commission thereof. He accepted this condition of pardon and was made an approver in the case. The Commissioners then proceeded to the trial of the other eleven accused persons.

(2.) The persons tried by the Commissioners were charged with the commission of an offence under Section 120-B, I.P.C., read with Section 302, I.P.C. The specific charge against them was that between 2 March, 1931 and 2 September, 1933 at Rajardighi Abash, Gope, Kedan, Babu's house, Sukumar Sen Gupta's house, Golekua chak, Old Jail, College Ground, Police Ground and other places in or about the town of Midnapur and Kharagpore within the District of Midnapur, Calcutta and other places in. Bengal, they along with Anath Panja, Mrigendra Dutta, Santi Gopal Sen, Sailesh Chandra Ghose, Bimal Das Gupta, Jyoti Jiban Ghosh, Parimal Roy, Phani Das, Pravangshu Pal, Prodyot Bhattacharjee and others, were parties, to a criminal conspiracy, the object of which was to commit murder of District- Magistrates and other high Government officials of the District of Midnapur, and in pursuance of the said conspiracy, Mr. Burge, the late Magistrate of that District, was murdered on 2nd September 1933.

(3.) All the accused persons were defended by counsel and the matter was gone into in great detail, and as far as we can see the Commissioners took into consideration all the arguments advanced on behalf of the accused. In the result the findings of the Tribunal were that the following accused persons, namely Nirmal Jiban Ghosh, Kamakhya Charan Ghosh, Brojokishore Chakravarty, Ram Krishna Roy, Sonatan Roy, Nanda Dulal Singh, Sukumar Sen Gupta, were guilty of the offence of criminal conspiracy to commit murder punishable under Section 120-B read with Section 302, I.P.C. The rest of the accused, namely Bijoy Krishna Ghose, Purnananda Sanyal, Manindra Nath Choudhury and Saroj Ranjan Das Kanungo were found not guilty of the offence charged against them. They were acquitted and set at liberty. The Commissioner stated that they gave their very anxious consideration to the question of sentence. They said that they could conceive of the circumstances in which a young man might join a terrorist organization which had murder for its object, join in wild talk and even take part in plans for the projected murder without fully facing the fact that action would really be taken to carry out that murder. They then said: In the case before us, where two previous District Magistrates had already been murdered, no possible ground could exist for any youth who joined in the conspiracy to fail to be aware that it was a conspiracy in deadly earnest. The evidence shows that the accused persons Brojo Kishore Chakravarty, Nirmal Jiban Ghosh and Ram Krishna Roy had already joined the party before the murder of Mr. Douglas. It shows that after the murder of Mr. Douglas, Brojo Kishore became the leader of the party and that he throughout took a directing part in arranging the murder of Mr. Burge. The evidence shows moreover that both Nirmal and Ram Krishna were active in pursuing the object of the conspiracy and that they both took a leading part in all the activities of the conspirators. We are aware that Nirmal's intimacy with the approver seems to throw the activities of Nirmal into disproportionate prominence. But even making allowance for that fact, it is clear that Nirmal was one of the most enthusiastic and active members of the conspiracy.