BENOY BHUSAN CHATTERJEE Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant in this case, Benoy Bhusan Chatterji, was placed upon his trial along with two other persons Jamini Karmakar and Monoranjan Kundu, before the learned Additional Sessions Judge of Alipore. These three persons were originally committed to the Court of Session and the committing Magistrate charged all three of them under Section 120-B read with Section 302, I.P.C. He also charged the present appellant Benoy under Section 302, I.P.C., and the other accused, Monoranjan and Jamini, under Section 302/34, I.P.C. When the three accused persons were brought before the Court of Session, the Public Prosecutor withdrew the charges under Section 302 and Section 302/34 with the consent of the Court and an order was recorded acquitting the accused on these charges. The charge on which the trial actually took place was as follows: That you (namely the three accused persons) along with Ujjalendu Ganguly, Kshiroda Devi and others were parties to a criminal conspiracy and agreed to do or caused to be done an illegal act, to wit, the commission of murder of Bibhuti alias Sankar alias Bibhuti Banerji and the said murder was done in pursuance of that conspiracy and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 120-B/302, I. P.C.

(2.) After this amendment of the charges and on the application of the Public Prosecutor the trial proceeded not before a jury but with the aid of assessors. The case for the prosecution rests mainly on the evidence of the approver, Ujjalendu, whom the learned Judge himself characterizes as "a self-confessed participant in a murder and a self-confessed betrayer of his associates in crime." The gist of the approver's story is as follows: He belonged to a gang of dacoits and the deceased Bibhuti, Benoy, and his co-accused Jamini and Monoranjan were also members of that gang. The accused Benoy had a sister called Kamala with whom Bibhuti fell in love. About the middle of Agrahayan 1342 B. S. the approver went to Benoy's house where he was informed by Benoy's mother of this affair. This lady suggested to him that the gang should remove Bibhuti from the world. The appellant also requested the approver to help them in the matter and the approver said that he would take time to consider it.

(3.) Some days later the deceased, Bibhuti attempted to coerce the approver into helping him to take away the girl Kamala and this, according to the approver, led him to decide to join the conspiracy. He accordingly informed the appellant Benoy, from whom he gathered that Jamini and Monoranjan had also agreed to help him in killing Bibhuti. In accordance with this agreement the appellant Benoy and the approver bought a dao on 9 December 1935 in a cutlery shop in Calcutta and on the next day they set out with the deceased Bibhuti in order, as they said, to commit a burglary in a house in Mutiapara. They were joined by the other two accused, but owing to a hitch they did not attempt the burglary and the deceased then expressed a wish to return home. The appellant Benoy said that if they were found moving about so late they would be arrested on suspicion by the police and suggested that they should wait where they were until morning. This suggestion was accepted and all the five men sat down to wait at a place some distance away from the house. In the early hours of the morning Bibhuti fell asleep. The appellant Benoy then sent the approver a short distance away to keep watch. The accused Jamini also stood at a short distance and the appellant Benoy attacked the sleeping Bibhuti with a dao and cut him through the back of his neck. The accused Monoranjan also struck him with a hunter. Bibhuti's head was severed from his body. The body was left there and the head and the dao were thrown into the lake close-by by the appellant Benoy.