ABDUL MAJID Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner Abdul Majid was tried with four others before the Deputy Magistrate of Tipperah in one trial on charges under Section 411 of the Indian Penal Code. All were convicted. Abdul Majid, Syad Ali and Safar Ali were sentenced under Section 411 to rigorous imprisonment for 18 months each, Abdul Aziz was sentenced under the same section to 9 months rigorous imprisonment, and the fifth accused Ummedannessa, who was in a critical state of health, was sentenced under the same section to a fine of Rs. 2, or, in default, to imprisonment until the rising of the Court.

(2.) On the 4 June 1905 a burglary was committed in the house of Chandra Kumar Dutt in the town of Comilla and property worth Rs. 600 was stolen. Information was given to the police and, after enquiry had been made and no clue obtained to the offenders, the case was reported as true, the offenders being not detected.

(3.) The complainant then proceeded to make enquiry himself through his servants and received information from Altab Ali, one of his peons, that Abinash Doctor and the accused Abdul Majid would try to find the stolen property, if they were paid Rs. 25. The complainant sent for them and offered to pay them Rs. 50 as a reward, if they would recover the stolen property for him. Some few days afterwards the accused Abdul Majid brought a Benares sari to the complainant, which complainant recognised as his, and as one of the articles which had been stolen from his house. The accused Abdul Majid demanded Rs. 5 from complainant for it. Complainant paid the sum and kept the sari. It was Exhibit 1 in the trial. There was another interview between complainant and Abinash Doctor and Abdul Majid the next day, at a place near the house of one Grirish Chandra Sen, and the two persons told the complainant that he must give them Rs. 2 in order to enable them to buy liquor and make the thieves drunk, so that from them in that condition they might obtain some clue to the stolen property. The complainant gave them Rs. 2. Next day Abdul Majid came back and demanded Rs. 2 more, saying that one of the rupees, which complainant had given him, was bad and that he had spent Rs. 3 on the liquor. The complainant gave him the Rs. 2. Other negotiations were afterwards carried on between complainant and the same persons for the recovery of his property, which ended in their saying that the thieves wanted Rs. 70 for the things, and complainant agreed to pay Rs. 60 wad in fact paid over Rs. 12 to the accused Abdul Majid. No other property was restored to complainant however, and on the 10 July complainant told a Sub-Inspector of Police, Rajani Babu, all that he had done. Apparently they laid a trap to catch the thieves, and complainant paid Rs. 18 more to Abdul Majid and Abinash Doctor. The trap failed, and the Sub-Inspector then proceeded on the 19 July to search the houses of different persons, including the houses of the five accused. In the houses of all various articles were discovered, which were all identified by the complainant as his property, and part of that which had been stolen from his house at the time of the burglary.