EMPEROR Vs. CHHANOO LAL BANIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this case the accused was tried on charges under Sections 395, 412 and 411, Indian Penal Code. The trial was by Jury in the Court of the Additional Sessions Judge of Howrah and the Jury having by a majority of 4 to 1 returned a verdict of not guilty the case comes before us on a reference made by the learned Sessions Judge under the provisions of Section 307 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

(2.) The case for the prosecution was that on the night of the 22nd July 1917 a dacoity took place in the house of one Nandji at Shalimar and that at about 11 a. M. on the 24th July five of the silver articles stolen in the course of the dacoity were found in the possession of the accused in his shop at 401/1A, Upper Chitpur Road, Calcutta.

(3.) A professing accomplice Fazaldin was examined to say that on the 23rd July at about 2 p. m. he had sold the articles to the accused for a sum of Rs. 40. An Inspector, a watch constable and two search witnesses were examined to prove the finding or production of the articles on the 24th. The inmates of the house i.e., Nandji, his wife or mistress Ananta Kumari, his two daughters Rajeswari and Dhaneswari, and a would-be son-in-law Gouri Sankar speak of the ornaments. Gouri Sankar, however, can speak of only one (Exhibit IV). Of the two daughters, one Rajeswari identifies four (Exhibits I and II as belonging to Dhaneswari, Exhibits III and IV as belonging to herself), while the younger daughter Dhaneswari identifies three (Exhibits I, II and III). Nandji identifies the same four articles, while the mother Ananta identifies all five including Exhibit VII, a got or chandrahar claimed as her own. Panna Lal Daw, a Sonar, identifies Exhibit I as an article made in his shop by means of the letter D C D stamped upon it, while one Kasiram Sonar says he made Exhibits IV, III and VII, 2, 3 and 6 years before respectively, Exhibit IV to the order of Gouri Sankar.