EMPEROR Vs. KOTHIA NAVALYA BHIL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant, a Bhil named Kothia valad Navalya was one of the persons accused of murder in the case of King-Emperor V/s. Godia and 5 Ors. He accepted a tender of pardon made to him by the Committing Magistrate on the conditions set out in Section 337 of the Criminal Procedure Code (Act V of 1898) and was examined as a witness for the Crown at the trial of his accomplices in the Sessions Court of Khandesh, for an offence of murder.

(2.) At the trial he, according to the case presented by the learned Government Pleader for the Crown in the appeal now before us, made " a full and true disclosure of the whole of the circumstances within his knowledge relative to such offence, and to every other person concerned, whether as principal or abettor, in the commission thereof and so far had fully complied with the condition on which pardon was tendered and accepted.

(3.) The Sessions Judge nevertheless, at the conclusion of the trial of the abovementioned case in which the accomplices were convicted, sent the pardoned accomplice Kothia (present appellant) in custody to the Committing Magistrate with an order directing that he should be committed for trial for the same murder.