LAWS(PVC)-1944-4-16

EMPEROR Vs. KESHAVLAL TRIBHUVANDAS PANCHAL

Decided On April 24, 1944
EMPEROR Appellant
V/S
KESHAVLAL TRIBHUVANDAS PANCHAL Respondents

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant and one Ishwarlal were tried by the Sessions Judge at Ahmedabad with the aid of assessors for offences punishable under the Explosive Substances Act, 1908. Originally both the accused were charged under Section 6 read with Secs.3 and 4(a) of the said Act and the appellant was in the alternative charged under Section 4(b). It was alleged that, at the instance of accused No. 2 Ishwarlal and from the wooden patterns supplied by him, the appellant prepared in October, 1942, and early in November, 1942, in his iron foundry at Ahmedabad cast-iron bomb shells and their screw caps, knowing or having reason to believe that the shells would be used as containers of explosive substance and with intent by means thereof to cause unlawfully and maliciously explosions of a nature likely to endanger life or cause serious injury jo property in British India, and by making and supplying those containers, which were adapted for causing or aiding in causing an explosion with an explosive substance, they intentionally aided and abetted the commission of offences punishable under Secs.3 and 4(a) of the Act, which were committed at the Ghee Kanta Police Chowkey on December 1, 1942, at the Ellis Bridge Police Chowkey on November 6, 1942, and at the Rangila Police Chowkey on November 22, 1942. The alternative charge referred to the manufacture of bomb shells with intent to enable another by means thereof to endanger life or cause serious injury to property in British India. After the evidence was recorded and the arguments on both sides were heard, the former charge was dropped as against the appellant. Three of the assessors found the appellant to be guilty and Ishwarlal to be not guilty. The learned Judge, agreeing with them, acquitted accused No. 2 Ishwarlal and convicted the appellant under Section 4(b) of the Explosive Substances Act, 1908, and sentenced him to rigorous imprisonment for two years.

(2.) In the months of November and December, 1942, bombs were thrown in different places in Ahmedabad, and some of them resulted in explosions. Three of them were included in the charge. Of those the first one was the bomb thrown on the Ellis Bridge Police Chowkey on November 6, 1942. It broke the glass of a window and the Police Sub-Inspector Mr. Chinoy found the bomb lying in the verandah. As its fuse was extinguished, it did not explode and was placed by him in water in a bucket. It was a bomb of the shape of a motor-horn bulb and it is article No. 17 before the Court. Thereafter another bomb was thrown at Rangila Police Chowkey on November 22, 1942. That bomb also did not explode as the fuse got extinguished prematurely. The Head Constable Abdul Hussein picked it up and placed it in a bucket of water. It is of the shape of a cylindrical barrel and is article No. 16 before the Court. The third bomb mentioned in the charge was thrown at the Ghee Kanta Police Chow-key on December 1, 1942, at about 3-30 p.m. It exploded with a loud noise and two constables were injured. A young man was seen cycling hurriedly past the window of the Police Chowkey, but was not identified or traced. The Assistant Superintendent of Police went there and took charge of the pieces of the exploded bomb. Those pieces when assembled made a bomb shell of the motor horn bulb type similar to article No. 17. Art. No. 1 contains those pieces of the bomb and articles Nos. 2 and 3 are its screw caps.

(3.) These and other bombs of similar types led the police to suspect that their cast-iron containers must have been made in some foundry in Ahmedabad itself and eventually they succeeded in tracing their manufacture to the foundry of the appellant from the information given by Mansukhram Nathalal. This Mansukhram and the appellant were once working together in the foundry of Atmaram Bhuder at Ghee Kanta. About six months before the Divali of Samvat 1998 the appellant started his own foundry on the Ghee Kanta Road and in June 1942 Mansukhram was employed by him as a fitter and manager. After the arrest of Mr. Gandhi, the appellant's foundry was closed, as all the mills and foundries in the City were also closed. Mansukhram then went away to his native place in Lunavada State. He returned to Ahmedabad on October 7, 1942, and found that the appellant's foundry had started working again. The appellant took him up again as fitter and manager on October 10, 1942. Although the foundry was working under the name of R. Keshavlal and Brothers, the appellant was its proprietor and was himself conducting it. About September 2, 1942, when Mansukhram had not yet rejoined the foundry, accused No. 2 Ishwarlal went there with a wooden pattern and a core-box and placed an order with the appellant. Under the appellant's orders the moulder Ratilal made two cylindrical containers of the type of barrels like article No. 16 according to the pattern supplied. He also made six containers of the type of the motor horn bulb like article No. 17. He made them at nigh? with the help of Din Dayal and Nima and handed them over to the appellant. Some days thereafter, after Mansukhram had rejoined the foundry, accused No. 2 Ishwarlal gave an order for making ten cast-iron containers according to the wooden pattern and core-box supplied by him. The appellant accepted that order and directed Mansukhram to carry it out. Accordingly Ratilal made ten barrel shaped containers of the type of article No. 16. According to Mansukhram and Ratilal article No. 16 is one of those. Each of those ten containers had a small hole at one end and a larger hole at the other end. Then about a week before the Divali, that is to say about November 2, 1942, accused No. 2 Ishwarlal wanted the appellant to have holes bored in eighteen screw caps which he had brought. There was no drilling machine in the appellant's foundry, and Somnath Pitambar, who was then present and who had a lathe factory, offered to bore the required holes in the screw caps. The appellant sent Mansukhram to Somnath's factory with the screw caps. It was found there that the drilling machine had been sent to Shantilal's factory on hire with Somnath's servant Mafatlal. So Mansukhram took the screw caps to Shantilal's factory and got them drilled by Mafatlal. They were then handed over to accused No. 2 ishwarlal who had been waiting for them in the appellant's foundry. The screw cap (article No. 2), which was found in the explosion of the bomb at Ghee Kanta Police Chowkey, is one of those eighteen screw caps. The same evening Ishwarlal again went to the appellant's foundry with a wooden pattern for screw caps and placed an order for a hundred screw caps of that pattern. Two or three days later, that is to say about November 4 or 5, Ishwarlal again went to the appellant's foundry with a wooden pattern of the type of a motor horn bulb and a core-box and placed an order for a hundred cast iron containers of that type. That pattern was identical with the pattern of the six containers which had been previously) prepared. He said that they were wanted before Divali. The appellant told him that he would get ready as many as possible and asked Mansukhram to work during the nights and get,them made The moulder Ratilal made eighteen containers of that type with the help of Din Dayal and Nima. The container of the bomb thrown at the Ellis Bridge Police Chowkey on November 6, 1942 (article No. 17) is one of them. Keshavlal also made six cast-iron sticks, each containing nine stoppers, to be converted into screw caps to fit the container's of the type of a motor horn bulb, Ishwarlal, however, did not turn up to take away the eighteen containers which had been kept ready. So the appellant removed them to his own house. In the meantime bombs had been thrown at different places, and the police had started to make a search in the foundries. When the appellant came to know this, he went to Mansukhram at 1 p.m. on November 9, 1942, and asked him to go to his house at once. When Mansukhram went to his house, the appellant took him to a small room in the dehla and showed him) a wooden box in which he had placed those eighteen containers. He brought a steel trunk from his house and asked Mansukhram to transfer the containers to the trunk. When Mansukhram did so, the appellant locked the trunk and asked him to remove it on the head of a cooly to Dr. Shivlal's residence. Mansukhram, however, told him that he would not be able to do so as all the foundries on the Ghee Kanta Road were being searched by the police. The appellant then said that in that case he would make some other arrangement. Mansukhram learnt in the evening that the trunk had been removed to Dr. Shivlal's house in his motor car.