EMPEROR Vs. BHAGGAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Forty-seven persons were put on their trial before a Magistrate of Ghazipur on charges under Secs.145 and 152, Indian Penal Code. The trial Court convicted 18 of the accused under the above named sections and sentenced each of them to undergo one year's rigorous imprisonment on each count, the sentences to be concurrent. The rest were acquitted. The 18 persons who were convicted appealed to the Sessions Judge and the latter allowed the appeals of eleven of them. As regards the remaining seven he altered the conviction to one under Section 151, Indian Penal Code, and reduced the sentences to 3 months rigorous imprisonment.

(2.) The Local Government have appealed against the acquittal of these 18 persons under Secs.145 and 151, Indian Penal Code, and have also filed an application in revision praying that in the alternative the sentences which have been inflicted upon 7 of the accused be enhanced.

(3.) Notice has not been served on respondent No. 11, Mulchand, and so his case is not before us. The facts of the case - about which there is little dispute - may be briefly stated as follows : A few months before this occurrence a Musalman weaver, by name Gharib, dreamt that a martyr was burried at a certain spot within the confines of, the village of Kusmi Khurd on the southern bank of the Karari river. This dream appears to have created a sensation in the neighbourhood and people soon began to say and believe that the spirit of the martyr had the power of performing miracles, and after a while a tomb was erected at that place and a bamboo fencing was put up round it. Thereafter, on Thursday of each week, Gharib lighted a lamp at the tomb and a crowd of people would assemble there, mostly Hindus of the lower classes and many of them women. One day a report got about that some Hindu women had been molested at the tomb by certain Mussulmans and this created resentment in the minds of many Hindus. On 25th April 1934 someone or other pulled down the bamboo fencing which was round the tomb and there can be little doubt that this was done by Hindus. There is also reason to suppose, that the Hindus decided to boycott the tomb. Anyway on the following day, i.e., 26 April, a chaukidar named Qasim Shah and a man named Mohammad Faiyaz, who is said to be the nephew, of a retired police officer, took steps to ensure that both Hindus and Musulmans should continue to assemble at the tomb on each Thursday of the week as heretofore. These two imaginative mischief makers broadcast a message to the effect that only Hindus who failed to attend at the tomb on 3 May would be deemed to have eaten beef and that any Mussulmans who likewise defaulted would be deemed to have eaten pork; and at the same time a rumour was spread to the effect that on that date a cow would be sacrificed at the tomb.