ACHHAY LAL SINGH Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These appeals are by ten men who have been convicted by Mr. S.N. Ahmad, Additional Sessions Judge of Monghyr, of conspiracy, and for that offence have been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for five years each. The object of the conspiracy was said to be to commit dacoity, and, in pursuance of the conspiracy four dacoities were said to have been committed. Each of the appellants, with the exception of Nawal Kishore Dhawal, was convicted of having taken part in one or more dacoities and, with the exception of Shital Prasad Jadav who was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for six years, was sentenced to undergo transportation for life. The earliest of these dacoities was committed on the night of 10 October 1942 at Matadih. Two more were committed on the following night, one at Bungalwa and the other at Saradhi which are contiguous villages not very far from Matadih. The last dacoity was committed at Gaura, which is some considerable distance away from the other villages, on the night of 13 October 1942. In the dacoity at Bungalwa and also in the dacoity at Gaura, fire-arms were used. At Bungalwa one Teju Mian was killed, and eight or nine other men were more or less seriously wounded. At Gaura one Sheikh Baser was killed and two other men were wounded. Some members of the gangs who committed these dacoities were in military uniform and at first it was suspected that some of the ring leaders of the dacoities had been soldiers from a camp near Jamalpur. The theory was however soon exploded and the attention of the police was directed to the appellant Achhai Lal Singh. This man belongs to Dariyapur a village not very far away from Matadih, and in 1941 he had enlisted in the army and about a year later had deserted. He was arrested at the house of his father-in- law in the district of Bhagalpur on 24-10-1942, and was taken to Monghyr on the following day. He then made a lengthy statement to a Sub-Inspector, Gopi Kant Thakur, who had arrested him, and subsequently on 4-11-1942 and the day following made a confession to the Sub-Divisional Magistrate. After Achhai Lal Singh had been arrested and had made a statement to the Sub-Inspector and before he made a confession to the Magistrate, another of the appellant, Shital Prasad Jadav, was arrested at Bahadurganj in the district of Purnea. This was on the 1-11-1942, and on 8-11-1942, this appellant also made a statement to a Magistrate at Kishanganj. In this he did not confess to have taken part in any of the dacoities but admitted that he had been associating with certain of the other appellants and had fled with them from Monghyr to Purnea. One Kaila Chamar who has since died was arrested on 6-11-1942, and on 12-11-1942, made a confession to a Magistrate in which he admitted having taken part in some of the dacoities and admitted also having stolen a number of bombs or hand grenades from the military camp near Jamalpur and secreted them in a cave on the top of a hill not far away. One Jhaksa Gorhi was arrested on 21-11-1942, and on 26-11- 1942, made a confession to a Magistrate. The appellant Surhaiya Kara, who was the only other appellant who made a regular confession was apprehended some considerable time later. The confession which he made was recorded on 11-3- 1943. A pardon was eventually tendered to Jhaksa Gorhi and he gave evidence at the trial in the Court of Session. He wag there subjected to a very lengthy and searching cross-examination being in the witness box for several days on end, and this he withstood successfully.

(2.) The learned Additional Sessions Judge subjected this evidence to the most searching and critical analysis and came to the conclusion that he had in fact taken part in dacoities and that he had in general given a wholly veracious account of what had taken place. In this Court it has not been suggested that this conclusion at which the Court below arrived was erroneous. All that has been said, and rightly and justifiably said, is that Jhaksa Gorhi is a man of worst possible character, being a hardened criminal who has taken part in many other dacoities and burglaries and that his evidence cannot be relied on as against any of the appellants unless there are other circumstances going to connect that particular appellant with the dacoity or dacoities in which ho is said to have participated. This, it may be said, was quite clearly recognised by the learned Additional Sessions Judge.

(3.) Achhai Lal Singh belongs to a respectable and a fairly well-to-do family and is a young man of some education. In his confession he said that in or about the year 1937 he had made the acquaintance of the appellant Lakhan Lal who belongs to the Congress Socialist party. Achhai Lal Singh's father succeeded in breaking off his association with Lakhan Lal but it was subsequently renewed sometime in 1941. In the latter part of the year 1941, Achhai Lal Singh went to Jabbalpur and enlisted in the army. According to him, he did so at the instance of Lakhan Lal and another prominent member of the socialist party, one Basawan Singh, the idea of these two men being that he should take this opportunity of learning how to use fire-arms in order that when a revolution broke out, he might prove a valuable asset to their party. Achhai Lal Singh appears to have shown some aptitude as a recruit: at all events, he was ultimately made an instructor and was posted to a camp at Deolali. He said that on or about 29-8-1942, Lakhan Lal and another man had come to him at Deolali and induced him to desert and also to get some other sepoys to desert along with him. Achhai Lal Singh waited until he could draw such pay as was due to him and then deserted on or about 13-9-1942. Three other sepoys deserted along with him and all of them came to Achhai Lal Singh's home in village Daryapur. Within a very few days however they decided to leave Daryapur and live in a cave on the top of the hills near Jamalpur. One reason for this was apparently, that arrangements had been made with Kaila Chamar who was employed as a cooly at the military camp, for Kaila Chamar to steal boxes containing bombs or hand grenades and secrete them in this cave. On 26-10.1942 Achhai Lal Singh took the Superintendent of Police and the Sub-Divisional Magistrate to this cave and showed them a number of boxes containing bombs or hand grenades which had been stolen by Kaila Chamar. Achhai Lal Singh said that Lakhan Lal and Basawan Singh in order to raise money with which to procure fire- arms and generally further designs of the political party to which they belonged, decided to commit dacoities, more particularly in the houses of well-to-do Muhammadans residing in the locality.