MOBARAK ALI SHIAK Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by eleven persons against their convictions and sentences in a trial held by an Assistant Sessions Judge with the aid of a jury. They were found guilty of offences under the following Secs.of the Indian Penal Code : the appellant Mobarak Ali under Section 148 and the second part of Section 304; the appellant Oresh Ali under Secs.148 and 324, and the remaining appellants under Section 148.

(2.) The case for the prosecution was that there had been a long standing feud between two parties, one headed by the appellant Mobarak Ali, and the other by one Khairuddin, and that in consequence of this an occurrence took place in which Mobarak Ali's party were the aggressors. It is alleged that early in the morning of 22 December, Khairuddin was sitting in his baithakkhana in company with the deceased Barshed, one Himmat Ali and. certain others, when the appellants came up armed with weapons which included spears. One Mohamed Ali, who was in the appellant's party, urged his associates to do away with Khairuddin. The deceased Barshed intervened, whereupon Mohamed Ali ordered his companions to assault him. The appellant Mobarak hurled a spear which struck Barshed in the throat causing almost instantaneous death. The appellants attacked the men of Khairuddin a party causing injuries to a number of them. One of these was Himmat Ali who was struck on the arm with a fishing spear thrown by Oresh Ali. The appellants then fled. One Borhan, who was an eyewitness, was deputed to lay information with the police. He proceeded to the Uluberia than where he arrived at about 9-30 A.M. But the Assistant Sub-Inspector who was in charge of the station, refused to record his in formation and drove him away. Borhan then sought the assistance of a Muktear who drafted an account of the occurrence. Armed with this, Borhan went again to the police station, where after some delay the document was accepted as a first information report. It would appear that earlier that morning at about 8 O clock, the appellant Mobarak Ali had also made a complaint which was recorded in the general diary and which was to the effect that people of the complainant's party were contemplating some mischief. The case for the defence was that an occurrence took place, not at the baithakkhana of Khairuddin, but at the houses of Oresh Ali and one Ainuddin where an attack was launched by people of the complainant's party, and that a spear thrown by one of them, a man called Pada Nausher, struck the deceased accidentally. As regards Mobarak it was contended that he -was not there at all, he having gone to the police station to make his complaint.

(3.) The charge to the jury is not very happily constructed. It is disjointed in expression, and is marked by unnecessary repetition of the evidence. But whether it contains misdirections, such as would necessitate a new trial, is another matter. On behalf of the appellants several points have been taken. It was contended that the learned Judge had failed to draw the jury's attention to materials which would show, firstly, that the injury to the deceased could not have been caused by the spear which was produced at the trial, and secondly that the affray took place at the homesteads of Oresh AH and Ainuddin. Upon examining the summing up we find that the learned Judge has reminded the jury of the medical evidence and has asked them to consider whether the injury on Barshed was caused by the spear which was exhibited, or by another of a different size. The learned Judge has also drawn the jury's attention to what the investigating officer saw for himself when he arrived at the spot, including the condition and appearances of things in the homesteads of Oresh Ali and Ainuddin. It was next urged that the Judge should have pointed out to the jury, that although the common object of the unlawful assembly was stated to be to assault Khairuddin, that witness himself in his statement to the committing Magistrate omitted to say that the primary object of the accused was to attack him. This fact is however specifically referred to, and in our judgment the learned Judge's comment with regard to it was quite sufficient. It was next contended that certain discrepancies in the evidence regarding the position in which Barshed's dead body was lying were not pointed out. The Judge has however adverted to these discrepancies, and we do not think the jury could possibly have lost sight of them.