ABDUL MALEK Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant Abdul Malek has been convicted by the learned Sessions Judge of Noakhali in agreement with the unanimous verdict of the jury under Section 395, Indian Penal Code, and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for six years. Along with him seven other persons were placed on their trial. Of the total number of 8, six including the appellant were charged under Section 895, Indian Penal Code, and one of those 6 as also two others were further charged under Section 412, Indian Penal Code. The jury returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty as regards all the accused persons except the appellant. The appellant was found guilty, also by a unanimous verdict and he was sentenced as already stated.

(2.) The facts of the case, briefly stated, are the following. The prosecution case is that on 27- 12-1943 a dacoity was committed at a place called Safarpur in the house of one Chandra Nath Chodhury. The dacoits were a very large number. It is said that they were about fifty and in the course of the dacoity the inmates of the house received injuries. The first information was in due course lodged and police investigation started but on 21-2-1944, the police submitted the final report to the effect that no clue as to the culprits could be found. There the matter rested for the time being.

(3.) It is alleged that on 24-4-1944, that is to say, about four months later, another dacoity was committed at a place called Char Sherpur at the house of one Ambika Charan Das. The dacoits concerned in that dacoity, it is alleged, were resisted and in the course of the chase that was given to them, two were secured. One of them, it is alleged, was the appellant before us. He had received some injuries in the course of the scuffle and while he was at the hospital foe treatment he, it is stated, expressed a desire to make a confessional statement and on 6- 6-1944, he made one. In that confessional statement he admitted his own complicity as well as the complicity of several other persons not only in the dacoity committed at Char Sherpur on 24-4-1944, but also in the dacoity committed on 27-121943, at Safarpur with which we are concerned in the present appeal. Thereafter, the investigation into the Safarpur dacoity was reopened and the accused, along with others, came in due course to be placed on his trial.