GOLOKE BEHARI TAKAL Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These three appeals have been heard together. Nine persons in all were put upon their trial in connection with the murder of a doctor named Amulya Sankar Chakravarti. There was a common charge against them all under Section 120-B read with Secs.302 and 201, Penal Code. Two of them were also charged with a substantive offence each, accused Upendra Nath Dutt, a Sub-Inspector of Police, under Section 204, and accused Bazlar Rahaman under Section 364. The trial was by jury. By a majority verdict, five of the accused, namely Upendra Nath Chakravarti (No. 2), Bazlar Rahaman (No. 6), Bejoy Kristo Roy (No. 7), Benoy Bhusan Roy (No. 8), and Upendra Nath Dutt (No. 9) were found not guilty of the main charge of conspiracy, but the remaining four, Goloke Behari Takal (No. l), Kalipada Bag (No. 3), Shamapada Bag (No. 4) and Khalil Mal (No. 5) were found guilty. The learned Sessions Judge accepted the verdict, and acquitted the first five, while he convicted the other four and sentenced them each to transportation for life under Section 120- B read with Secs.302 and 201. The jury by a majority also found Upendra Nath Dutt (No. 9) guilty under Section 204 and Bazlar Rahaman (No. 6) under Section 364. Accepting this verdict, the learned Judge sentenced Upendra Nath Dutt to pay a fine of Rs. 200, in default to undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months and Bazlar Rahaman to rigorous imprisonment for eighteen months. Six of the accused have thus been convicted, and all of them have appealed to this Court, excepting Bazlar Rahaman. Appeal No. 162 of 1937 is by Goloke Behari Takal, Appeal No. 189 of 1937 is by Kalipada Bag, Shamapada Bag, and Khalil Mal and Appeal No. 210 of 1937 is by the Sub-Inspector Upendra Nath Dutt. Mr. Hiralal Ganguli appears for the appellant in the first appeal and Mr. Sudhansu Sekhor Mukherjee for the appellants in the other two appeals. Mr. D. N. Bhattacharjee represents the Crown in all the cases.

(2.) The accused had been first placed on their trial before Mr. S. N. Guha Roy, Additional Sessions Judge of Howrah, and a special jury of nine persons. In the course of the trial an application was made by the Crown to this Court for discharging the jury and ordering a new trial, but this was rejected. One of the jurors died later, and the same object was thereby indirectly secured. A fresh trial commenced before another Additional Sessions Judge, Mr. S. Chakravarti, with a new special jury of nine, with the result already stated. Seventy-five witnesses in all were examined on behalf of the prosecution, of whom 37 had been examined at the previous trial. The defence did not examine any witnesses. The trial before Mr. S. Chakravarti commenced on 1 December 1936 and ended on 3 February 1937.

(3.) The prosecution case, very briefly stated, was this: The deceased who was an M. B. of the Calcutta University of a few years standing was practising in a village known as Basantapur within the jurisdiction of the Amta Police Station in the District of Howrah. He was staying at the time in the house of Goloke Behari Takal, accused 1 in the case and appellant in Appeal No. 162. He was missed on and from the evening of Sunday the 29 September 1935. The last that was seen of him that evening was in an arum thicket (kachuban) in the village, a few feet away from the road side, where according to three eye-witnesses he was being assaulted with short clubs or khetis. Eight or nine days later, a severed human thigh and full human arm without the palm and a few bones were discovered in a neighbouring field called Harishpur. This was followed by subsequent finds of a human spinal column on 2 January, 1936, and of pieces of a human skull, jaw, and five teeth on 24 February 1936. It is said these dismembered parts were all parts of the missing doctor's body. A bicycle was also recovered from a bil known as Danrapur tank on 30 December 1935 and a silk shirt and a genji on 2nd January 1936. These articles were all said to have belonged to the doctor. The main charge against the nine accused was framed in the following terms: That you, between the beginning of Bhadra of 1342 B. S. till the end of aswin of the same year, corresponding to middle of August 1935 till middle of October 1935, at Basantapur, Chaldakhali, Penro, Danrapur, Harishpur, Amta within Amta Police Station and other places, were parties to a criminal conspiracy amongst yourselves and with Abir Kaji absconder, Satia Banerjee, Monmotha Ghose, Anil Bhusan Roy, Suren Patra and others known and unknown, to commit murder of Dr. Amulya Sankar Chakravarti of Basantapur and to cause the evidence of that murder to disappear with a view to screen yourselves and other conspirators and in pursuance of that conspiracy the murder of the said Dr. Amulya Sankar Chakravarti was committed by the members of the conspiracy and the dead body was out into pieces-in some oases beyond recognition and scattered and concealed, and other belongings of the said doctor, e. g. the shirt, the genji, the cycle and other articles, which the doctor had on his person at the time of the murder, were also concealed with the intention of causing the evidence of murder to disappear, and by other acts the disappearance of the evidence of murder was helped with a view to screen yourselves and other conspirators, and thereby committed an offence punishable under Secs.120-B/302 and 201, Indian Penal Code, and within the cognizance of the Court of Session.