NITAI CHANDRA JANA Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The seven appellants before us, Nitai Chandra Jana, Radharaman Adhikary, Sasadhar Chatterjee, Sudhasindhu Dey, Chintamoni Addya, Durgadas Mukherjee and Jaladhar Banerjee, along with four others, Hari Pada Mukherjee, Asoke Chandra Ganguly, Nirmalendu Das Gupta alias Nimai and Birendra Nath Roy Choudhury, were placed on trial under orders of the Local Government before Mr. Kumud Behari Mullik, Special Magistrate appointed under Secs.24 and 25, Bengal Suppression of Terrorist Outrages Act. During the said trial Asoke and Haripada were granted pardon under Sec. 337, Criminal P.C., and were examined as approvers. The remaining nine of the accused were convicted under Section 121-A, I.P.C., and under Section 120-B, I.P.C., read with Secs.19(f) and 20, Arms Act, while five of them, namely Chintamoni, Sasadhar, Sudbasindhu, Radharaman and Nitai Jana, were also convicted under Section 395, I.P.C. On appeal to this Court it was held that the trial was without jurisdiction inasmuch as the alleged offence under Section 395, I.P.C., was really one under Section 396, I.P.C., and that the accused should therefore have been given the privilege of a trial either by the Court of Session or by a Special Tribunal. The convictions and sentences were accordingly quashed. The Local Government thereupon ordered a re-trial of the same 11 accused by a Special Tribunal and authorized Mr. Wood, Superintendent of Police, Hooghly, to lodge a formal complaint against them.

(2.) Mr. Wood accordingly filed a petition of complaint on 10 August 1936 before a Special Tribunal appointed under Section 4, Bengal Criminal Law Amendment Act. The material allegations in this complaint are these: The 11 accused persons mentioned above, with several others known and unknown, were parties to a criminal conspiracy to wage war against the King and to deprive His Majesty of the Sovereignty of British India or any part thereof, to overawe by means of criminal force the Government of India and the Local Government, to commit murder and dacoity, and to collect arms and ammunition in contravention of the provisions of law. In pursuance of the said conspiracy the members of this terrorist party collected men, arms and ammunition and committed and attempted to commit dacoities in the District of Hooghly and other places. On the night of 17 June 1933 a dacoity was committed in the house of one Nanda Lal Karmakar of Baidyabati where he had a money-lending business and a goldsmith's shop and lived with his old mother. In the course of this dacoity valuables were removed from his house and Nanda and his mother were murdered. One Haridas Addya, father of accused Chintamoni, lodged an information to the Police Station and the local Police after investigation submitted a final report on 28 August 1933.

(3.) On certain secret information obtained by the Intelligence Branch, several houses were searched between 17 July 1934 and 19 July 1934 at Baidyabati, Chatra and other places, and some revolutionary literature consisting mainly of pamphlets and manuscript writings and newspaper cuttings of the reports of the trials of terrorists was seized. Chintamoni, Jaladhar and Badharaman were arrested in connection with the Hazigunj Mail Robbery Case, Tipperah. On 8 August 1934, 16 August 1934 and 18 July 1934 respectively, and on 25 August 1934 the investigation in connection with the occurrence at Nanda Lal's house was re-opened under order of the Superintendent of Hooghly. Accused Chintamoni Addya made a confession before the Magistrate on 27 August 1934, disclosing the existence of a terrorist organization and his complicity in the dacoity in the house of Nanda Kamar which was committed in pursuance of the said conspiracy for providing money for the purchase of arms and ammunition. On the statement of Chintamoni, accused Sasadhar was arrested on 1st September 1934 at Jubbulpore (C.P.): he made a confession which was recorded on 4th September 1934. Asoke Chandra, an M.A. student and a resident of Baidyabati, was arrested on 2 September, 1934: he made a confession which was recorded on 6 September 1934. As a result of disclosures made by the aforesaid Sasadhar and Asoke, accused Nimai, Durgadas, Haripada and Birendra were arrested on different dates between September and the beginning of October 1934 and all of them made confessions which were duly recorded. Nitai Jana had already been arrested under the Bengal Criminal Law Amendment Act on 26th April 1934 and had been sent to Hijli Detention Camp as a detenue. The confessions of the accused persons disclosed that they with many others, known and unknown were members of a terrorist organization and used to meet at various places in Baidyabati, Sheoraphuli, Bhadreswar, Calcutta and elsewhere for the furtherance of their objects, that they recruited members to the terrorist party, collected arms, ammunition and explosives, obtained money by committing dacoities, attempted to commit other acts of robbery, and planned to murder the District Magistrate of Chinsura. On 18 December 1934, Sub-Inspector Bidhu Bhusan Das who was specially deputed to re-investigate into the dacoity in Nand Kumar's house submitted a chargesheet under Secs.121.A, 395, I.P.C. and Section 120-B, I.P. C read with Section 19(f). Arms Act, against the 11 accused persons.