NEK RAM Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) There are five appellants in this case. Two of them Nek Ram and Nathu Ram have been sentenced to a fine of Rs. 500, a third Grend Singh to a fine of Rs. 100 and the two remaining ones Tej Singh and Harnarain to rigorous imprisonment for a period of two years and three years respectively. Nek Ram, Grend Singh and Tej Singh have been sentenced under Section 366, Indian Penal Code, and Nathu Ram and Harnarain under Section 366, read with Section 109 Indian Penal Code. The charge, framed was one of abduction with the intent that the woman or girl concerned should be married against her will. This girl Mst. Gulkandi is the sister of the appellant Tej Singh and the daughter of one Mst. Chandrawalli who was left a widow 14 years before the alleged occurrence. Harnarain appellant is Mst. Chandrawalli's brother. The allegation was that the five appellants entered into a conspiracy in order to marry, this girl Mst. Gulkandi to Nek Ram. The defence was that she had already-been married to Nek Ram sometime before.

(2.) The prosecution originated from a report made by a chaukidar at the police station. This man is the chaukidar of the village in which Nek Ram and his brother Grend Singh lived. He reported that a marriage was taking place in his village, that the girl was about 12 years of age and that he had information that she had been taken away from some other village without the consent of her guardian. The police went to the village next day and made some arrests.

(3.) The conspiracy, if there was one, began much earlier, because in May of the year 1934, Nek Ram made a complaint that his wife, Mst. Gulkandi, had been enticed away from him and instituted a case under Section 498, Indian Penal Code. On the 11 of May he asked for a warrant for the arrest of Mt. Gulkandi and she was arrested that night in the house of Jhamman Thakur who is alleged to be Mt. Chandrawalli's paramour. On the 12 of May the Magistrate delivered the girl to the custody of the appellant Harnarain who is her maternal uncle. According to some of the appellants, the girl remained with Harnarain from the 12 to the 20th of May and was then taken by him to Nek Ram's house on the occasion of Nek Ram's nephew's marriage. She is alleged to have stayed in Nek Ram's house from the 20 of May till the 4 of June. Harnarain himself said that he did not keep the girl in his custody, but took her to the house of Nathu Ram, another appellant who is also a relation of hers and is mukhia of his village. He said that this man sent her to Nek Ram's house on the 4 of June, the day when she was arrested, so that he could be married to her. Nathu Ram said that he had nothing to do with the matter.