AMJAD KHAN S O HAJI MOHAMMAD KHAN Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The main question in this case is whether there is a right of private defence. Most of the facts are not in dispute.

(2.) A communal riot broke out at Katni on 5-3-1950 between some Sindhi refugees resident in the town and the local Muslims. The trouble started in the locality known as Zanda Bazar or Zanda Chowk. Police Constable Bharat Singh, P. W. 17, who made the First Information Report, said that most of the shopkeepers in Zanda Bazar are Sindhis. He stated that when he was told that trouble had broken out there he proceeded to the spot and found that the goods in the Muslim shops in that locality were scattered. It is also in evidence that some Muslims lost their lives.

(3.) From this place he went on to Subash Chowk, the locality in which the appellant's shop is situate. It lies to the West of Zanda Bazar. He states that when he got there he found a 'crowd" there but not a "mob". He admitted that he had said in the First Information Report that a gun was fired a minute after he had reached the spot and he said that what he had stated in the First Information Report was true. It is not disputed that this shot was fired by the appellant, as also a second shot, and that caused the death of one man (a Sindhi) and injured three others, also Sindhis.