EMPEROR Vs. KAMESHWAR LAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a reference made by Rai Saheb Bhubaneshwar Prasad Pande, Assistant Sessions Judge of Patna, against the unanimous verdict of not guilty given by the jury in respect of three accused persons who were charged with dishonestly and fraudulently using as genuine a forged document, that is to say a sale deed which purported to have been executed on 6 March 1932, in favour of the three accused by Mt. Budho Kurmini, widow of Bandhu Mahto, deceased. The document, which is Ex. 8, was presented for registration at 1 p.m. on 9 March 1932, and was registered.

(2.) It purports to convey to the transferees the entire holding of deceased's husband comprising 6.28 acres. It is said to have been used by the three accused in the course of a criminal proceeding against them in the Court of Maulvi Syed Sayeed-ud-din Ahmed, Honorary Magistrate at Bihar, and the present prosecution was started on a complaint made by this Magistrate in accordance with the provisions of Secs.476 and 195, Criminal P.C. The correctness of the procedure taken for instituting the proceedings against these accused has not been assailed.

(3.) The case before Maulvi Syeed-ud-din Ahmed was a complaint case brought by Bhikhari Raut, father of Mt. Budho, who on 23 April 1932, complained against the three present accused and four other persons that on the previous day, 22nd April 1932, they had come to the field of Mt. Budho and uprooted onions and plucked brinjals worth Rs. 1-8-0, that Bhikhari, complainant, opposed them and was assaulted. The sale deed was put to Mt. Budho in cross-examination and she denied having executed it.