EMPEROR Vs. PHUCHAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The facts of this case have been clearly found by the Courts below and cannot be doubted. The police received information that a number of persons were hiding themselves on a dark night at about midnight in a mango grove outside the abadi of a village with a view to commit some offence. When the police went to the grove they found four persons sitting there, who, on being challenged, tried to run away. They were chased and two of them, the present accused, were captured. They had house-breaking instruments (jemmies) with them. When caught, they first gave wrong names and addresses, and then later on disclosed their real identities. They are residents of the same sub-division. They were called upon to show cause under Section 109, Criminal P.C. The Magistrate came to the conclusion that the case fell under Section 109, Sub-clause (a) and demanded security. The learned Sessions Judge, following the recent pronouncements of this Court, held that sub-section was inapplicable. The Government have accordingly filed a revision from that order.

(2.) In the case of Emperor V/s. Bhairon it was remarked that it is an entire mistake to read that sub-clause as applying to any person who takes steps to conceal himself in the sense of concealing his presence in the way in which a criminal conceals his presence, when he goes in the dark, or by a deserted road, or by some other secret means to commit a crime in his own neighbourhood; that it was not intended to deal with anybody, either a habitual resident or a person well- known in the neighbourhood, trying to conceal himself, and that the offence contemplated is that of a person, probably, though not necessarily, coming from outside the jurisdiction into the Magistrate's jurisdiction for some nefarious purpose, and taking precautions to conceal the fact that he is present in that jurisdiction.

(3.) This case was explained in the case of Emperor V/s. Himayatullah , and it was stated that Bhairon's case cannot be said to have laid down that a person must go into the district from a place quite outside, and that a person living within the territorial jurisdiction of a Magistrate who takes steps to conceal that he is there, namely, by removing himself from one part to another and disguising his identity or hiding his person, may be within the section.