BALAI BAURI Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this case we are concerned with a dacoity which took place on the night of 15 January this year at a liquor shop which is outside village Ladhurka within the jurisdiction of thana Hura in Manbhum. In the course of this dacoity a chaukidar. Sambhu Bauri, received a blow with an axe which fractured his skull and he died some days later. The liquor shop stands in an isolated place about 120 paces north of the Purulia-Bankura District Board road and about the same distance south- west of the village just on the north side of the same road. The building of the liquor shop consists of a court-yard surrounded by a low wall and on the north side of the enclosure is a store-room with a verandah. The two entrances to the court-yard are respectively on the south and on the east.

(2.) There is another small room and a verandah on the west side. On the night in question there were sleeping in the room three Mohamedans, one Shamsuddin who is employed by the owner of the shop to supervise this and other shops and a few days before the night in question he came to Ladhurka on a visit of inspection, the two others Abdul and Karim Bux both employed in the shop and outside on the verrandah there slept a salesman named Guhia Bauri. There was hanging from the thatch of the verandah a lantern. The door leading from the room to the verandah was closed by a sheet of galvanized iron fastened with wire. At about midnight the man Guhi Bauri received some severe lathi blows on the face, leg and back.

(3.) He found the three appellants Gobra Bauri, Madhab Bauri and Boya Bauri standing beside him. Gobra and Madhab were armed with lathis and Boya had a tabla or axe with the handle of which he had struck the witness and inflicted a bruise on the right of the nose and the adjoining part of the face. He was well acquainted with all the three men and recognised them by the light of lantern. He was also able to see six or seven others in the courtyard below the verandah but did not recognise them. They threatened to kill him if he made a noise. Then they covered his eyes with a cloth and tied him up with a rope. The assailants then began to knock upon the door of the room. This alarmed the inmates who attempted to resist the assailants by pushing in the opposite direction against the door which ultimately fell down.