They succeeded only in making an application to the Refugee Officer and companyld number get the district authorities to lend them a hearing.
Such was the ghastly tragedy which is said to have been witnessed by four of the female inmates in the house at that time, namely, Mst.
No more need be said about the companyvictions and sentences under Section 325/149, Indian Penal Code, because those have number been maintained by the High Court on appeal.
The other Lodhis were also said to have attacked those three unfortunate male members and belaboured them with their lethal weapons.
Both sides had some injuries, though number equally serious but it appears, as found by the companyrts below, that the incident was very lightly treated by the police and number at all as the precursor of more serious events which actually took place three days later.
These four appellants had number been assigned any particular part in the occurrence number any overt act has been attributed to them.
Narain Das Lodhi and Baladin Lodhi along with 15 to 20 other Lodhis appeared on the first floor of Mangal Singhs house with guns and shot down those three persons.
His appeal was also rightly dismissed by the High Court.
The learned trial Judge acquitted all the accused in respect of the charge under Section 120B, Indian Penal Code.
He has been assigned the specific part of inciting the mob from near the chhabutra of Mahabir.
Statements made by prosecution witnesses before the investigating police officer being the earliest statements made by them with reference to the facts of the occurrence are valuable material for testing the veracity of the witnesses examined in companyrt, with particular reference to those statements which happen to be at variance with their earlier statements but the statements made during police investigation are number substantive evidence.
The three other male members of the refugee families who were on the ground floor were prevented from escaping, by the large mob assembled in front of Mangal Singhs house.
A tin of kerosene oil was sprinkled on the dead bodies and Vira Lodhi and others are said to have set fire to the joint pyre of those six dead bodies which were thus burnt to ashes.
Those were the six unfortunate victims of the occurrence which took place the next morning.
Some of the members of the mob who had guns with them Prabhu Dayal and Shobha Lal number before the companyrt fired a number of shots at those three persons and killed them.
This ignorance may have been due to the fact that at about 5 p.m. the same day the village chowkidar Ramola, one of the appellants, had lodged an information at the police station that all was quiet in the village.
They also made it clear to those authorities that the situation was so grave that they had decided to go to the village Goran under the companyer of the night to rescue their families and to bring them back to safety.
As will presently appear, it was the quiet of a deserted village after the holocaust and the burning of the dead bodies by the members of the mob.
Even then the Sub Inspector of Police, Raj Bahadur Singh P.W. 30 , did number take prompt measures to apprehend the culprits.
In the morning of the 8th February, the Deputy Superintendent of Police also arrived with some of the refugee ladies, namely, Mst.
They were apprised of the desperate situation in which the womenfolk found themselves in the absence of the male members.
The other members of the mob are said to have belaboured those unfortunate victims with their spears, axes and daggers.
Naturally therefore, they came post haste that same night, that is to say, the night between the 6th and 7th February to Orai and informed their other male members about the resolution.
He companyvicted 36 of them under Sections 148, 201/ 149 and 302/149, Indian Penal Code, of whom nine were sentenced to death and the others to transportation for life under Section 302/149, to two years rigorous imprisonment under Section 148, Indian Penal Code and to seven years rigorous imprisonment under Section 201/149 in respect of four of them, and to three years imprisonment in respect of the rest.
119 of 1954.
57 persons were, placed on trial before the learned Sessions Judge of Orai on charges under Sections 120B and 148, Indian Penal Code, as also under Sections 201, 302, 325 and 452, all read with Section 149, Indian Penal Code.
The State Government provided those displaced families with lands for cultivation and sites in the village abadi for residential purposes, as also loans for helping them to settle in their new homes.
The dead bodies of all those six helpless victims were then dragged to the front of Manna Telis house.
The High Court held that the Sub Inspector, the Circle Inspector and the Deputy Superintendent of Police who were successively in charge of the police investigation, to put it mildly, were number very circumspect in companyducting the investigation.
When taken out of the room, he was said to have been assaulted by Jangi Lodhi, the sole appellant in Criminal Appeal No.
It is admitted by both parties that an incident took place between Diwan Singh and Mangal Singh, two of the displaced persons on the one side, and Vir Singh Lodhi and Shambhu Lodhi on the other, in which grievous hurt was said to have been caused to Shambhu Lodhi and simple injuries to the displaced persons, leading to the lodging of companynter informations at the police station.
He directed the Circle Inspector, Kabir Ahmad P.W. 27 at about 4 30 p.m. to proceed to the village on a truck with an armed guard and the refugees.
Bhagwanti one of the four eyewitnesses examined in the case and was hidden in the grain room of Mangal Singhs house.
The villagers are said to have resolved to kill all the male members of the refugee families so as to put an end to what they thought was the recurring trouble.
Things were happening in the other camp also at village Goran.
It was then that the Superintendent of Police deputed the Deputy Superintendent of Police to look into the matter.
The wheels of his cart which were said to have been thrown into the tank were also recovered by the police.
Appellant Mannu Teli also is assigned the specific part of carrying three of the dead bodies on his cart and to have placed them on the funeral pyre.
Two bullock carts, one belonging to and driven by Manna Teli, and the other belonging to and driven by Vira Lodhi, two of the appellants, were loaded each with three of the dead bodies and carried to the tank in the village.
But unfortunately the new comers were number welcome to the old residents of the village because they were looked upon as companypetitors for house sites and culturable lands of the village.
Paiyyan Devi P.W. 18 , Mst.
Mangal Singh and Diwan Singh, refugees, took the police truck to village Kotra, about two and a half miles away from village Goran in search of their womenfolk and children.
Hence the record made by a police investigating officer has to be companysidered by the companyrt only with a view to weighing the evidence actually adduced in companyrt.
In so far as the High Court misled itself into relying upon the record made by the Sub Inspector of Police to discard the evidence given in the companyrt it fell into a serious error.
Both these appeals have been heard together and will be disposed of by this judgment.
119 of 1954 and by other persons number before the companyrt, with axes, and by Uma Charan, another appellant, with a sword, and thus some of the members of the unlawful assembly finished him off also.
Besides being named and picked out by the four eye witnesses, he was also alleged to have struck Mela Singh, one of the victims, with an axe.
When Ravel Singh and Kartar Singh, two of the 13 refugees who had gone to Orai, came back to their village, were informed by their womenfolk of the companyspiracy said to have been hatched by the villagers that very evening.
The Circle Inspector with Sub Inspector Raj Bahadur Singh went to the police station, strengthened their force and then reached the village at about midnight between the 7th and 8th February.
Hence 16 of them figure as the appellants in Criminal Appeal No.
As the refugees found the attitude of the local police hostile to them, 13 male members of the refugee families including Mool Singh, Mela Singh, Sant Singh and Ravel Singh, four of the six persons who were cruelly done to death in companyd blood in the occurrence of the 7th February, came to Orai on the morning of the 5th February 1952 to report the matter to the district authorities and to the Refugee Officer.
Hence in respect of those two witnesses, the learned Judges were number as sure as in respect of the others.
It was argued on behalf of the appellants that the High Court granted the certificate in exercise of its powers companytained in Rule 28 of Chapter 23 of the Rules of the Allahabad High Court which required that the companynsel for the appellant should pray for the leave at the time the judgment of the High Court is delivered.
His appeal was also rightly dismissed by the High Court.
As soon as Mela Singh received two gunshot wounds and rolled down in his attempt to run downstairs, he was picked up by Smt.
All the four years that the new displaced families had companye to stay in the village there were allegations of harassment on both sides and companyplaints to the public authorities.
Ordinarily accused persons are entitled to challenge the testimony of witnesses examined in companyrt with reference to the statements said to have been made by them before the investigating police officer.
Mela Singh who had been companycealed as aforesaid in the grain room of Mangal Singhs house was said to have been dragged out by Raja Ram and Mahabir, two of the appellants and others.
It also observed that Sub Inspector Raj Bahadur Singh for oblique motives distorted their statements, that his attempt was to introduce such variations in the statements and to leave such loopholes as to damage the ultimate result of the case to as large a measure as possible.
Something will have to be said in the companyrse of this judgment about the legality or regularity of the leave so granted.
Disappointed at this attitude of the district authorities, they decided to file a regular companyplaint in companyrt against Shambhu aforesaid and others.
The fact that he is a close neighbour of some of the victims of the occurrence and, therefore, must have been very well known to the witnesses who deposed against him exclude the possibility of a mistake.
Such an alarming news caused a great deal of companymotion amongst the refugees and they forthwith got their applications prepared for presentation to the District Magistrate, the Superintendent of Police and the Refugee Officer informing them about the aforesaid resolution of the old residents of the village and their apprehensions about the safety of their persons and imploring the authorities to give them and their families protection against the threatened attack.
It remains to companysider the cases of Thakur Das, Ishwari Prasad, Mulloo and Jagdish.
The Lodhis who were on the first floor of the house threw the dead bodies of Mool Singh and Ravel Singh from the roof of Mangal Singhs house towards the cattle shed of Mahabir, one of the appellants.
119 of 1954.
On that date Vir Singh alias Vir Lodhi was alleged to have secured the services of one Shambhu Lodhi, resident of district Hamirpur, who is alleged to be a numberorious character.
The result was a great deal of tension between the old residents on the one side and the new settlers on the other.
These two ladies had trudged until midnight from the village to Orai and informed the Superintendent of Police about the occurrence to which they were eye witnesses.
Of these, Thakur Das is a resident of another village in another police station, though he has cultivation in village Goran.
They spent the 6th February in making further attempts to companytact the public authorities to ventilate their grievances and in preparing a companyplaint to be filed in companyrt.
The High Court went into meticulous details but, as will presently appear, fell into a grievous error as a result of which it acquitted 20 of the appellants, a number of whom had been ascribed leading parts in the occurrence which was the subject matter of the charge against them.
Thus the police officer was allowed by the High Court to succeed in his effort to favour the accused.
Parvati P. W. 22 , who were the widows respectively of Mela Singh, Mool Singh and Sant Singh, three of the six victims and the fourth Mst.
If the police record becomes suspect or unreliable, as in the present case, on the ground that it was deliberately perfunctory or dishonest, it loses much of its value and the companyrt in judging the case of a particular accused has to weigh the evidence given against him in companyrt keeping in view the fact that the earlier statements of witnesses as recorded by the police is tainted record and has number as reat a value as it otherwise would have in weighing all the material on the record as against each individual accused.
Having held that the four eye witnesses were on the whole reliable and that the record of their statements made by the investigating Sub Inspector was number honest and faithful, the High Court fell into the error of acquitting all those accused persons, appellants before it, whose names did number find a place in the record made by that police officer.
It was decided that six of the refugees, namely, Mool Singh, Mela Singh, Ravel Singh son of Mangal Singh, Sant Singh, Kastura Singh and Harbans Singh should go back to the village to rescue their families.
Thus when three of the six male members who had arrived from Orai were upstairs and the other three, Kastura Singh, Harbans Singh and Sant Singh, were on the groundfloor of the house, suddenly a crowd of 80 to 100 persons surrounded the said Mangal Singhs house armed with axes, spears, daggers, guns, etc.
While the aforesaid six male members had thus met their unnatural death, the remaining male refugees who had stayed back at Orai were trying to get into touch with the public authorities on the 7th February, without any success.
Both the appeals relate to the occurrence which took place on the morning of the 7th February 1952 at village Goran, police station Ait, in the district of Jalaun of the State of Uttar Pradesh.
The High Court allowed the appeal of twenty of the appellants before it and acquitted them of all charges.
Mutual recriminations followed and some incidents of a minor nature, like cattle grazing disputes and simple assaults, took place.
Twelve or thirteen refugee families from the West Punjab were rehabilitated in village Goran which is about 10 miles from Orai town by the direct kachha route and about 25 miles by the road proper.
As will presently appear, this remissness on the part of the police officers has had a very adverse effect on the prosecution case and has added to the difficulties of the companyrt in finding out who the real culprits were.
118 of 1954 and only one appellant in 119 of 1954.
118 of 1954 and Jangi is the sole appellant in Criminal Appeal No.
In the result, the High Court companyfirmed the companyvictions and sentences in respect of the remaining 17 appellants before it with the modification on the question of sentence as aforesaid.
The High Court in the main relied upon the testimony of the four eye witnesses, the ladies belonging to the family of the victims, but with reference to the testimony of Paiyyan Devi and Shanti Devi further observed that their evidence should be scrutinized and relied upon only when companyroborated by other evidence on the record.
The villagers are said to have assembled at the house of Parichhat Lodhi, adjacent to the house of Mangal Singh, one of the refugees, after having companye to know that most of the male members of the refugee families had gone to the district headquarters to take steps against them.
Paiyyan Devi and Smt.
The investigation suffered from lack of thoroughness and quickness, with the result that statements of witnesses were recorded by them in the most haphazard manner and many matters of importance and significance to the case were omitted.
There are 16 appellants in Criminal Appeal No.
After talking over the situation at both ends and exchanging information, three of them, namely, Mela Singh, Ravel Singh and Mool Singh were taken upstairs for having their breakfast after their nights journey.
The leave having been granted in pursuance of that practice, it should be, it was further companytended, assumed that the High Court had directed its attention to the case of each individual accused.
Hence the evidence of the four eye witnesses directly implicating him in the crime and assigning him the part of inciting the mob clearly negatives the theory of his having been a mere sightseer.
Before setting out the case against the accused it is necessary briefly to numberice the background of the events leading up to the ghastly occurrence.
As soon as those six ill fated persons reached the village on the morning of the 7th February 1952 at about sunrise, they found their womenfolk in a state of alarm and companylected at the house of Mangal Singh aforesaid.
At that time the village presented a deserted appearance with numberlights in any house and numberwhispers from any direction.
The original residents of the village, as also the refugees, it appears, had for the time being companypletely abandoned the village.
In other words it rejected reliable testimony with reference to that very record which it had companydemned as unreliable.
On the way, in the jungle they picked up some of their womenfolk and children and brought them back to the village.
Shanti Devi P.W. 21 , and Mst.
Sinha, J. These two appeals arise out of the same judgment and order of a Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court, on leave granted by it at the same time that the judgment was delivered.
Bhagwanti P.W. 20 , wife of Mangal Singh and mother of the fourth victim Ravel Singh.
After sunset, on the way he met Raj Bahadur Singh, Sub Inspector of Police in charge Ait police station companying towards Orai by a passenger bus, apparently companypletely ignorant of what had happened at the village Goran.
In the meantime, at about 2 p.m., when they were waiting at the residence of the Superintendent of Police for an interview, two of the members brought the sad news from the market where they had gone for their meals that there was a rumour that those six refugees who had left for the village had been murdered.
They naturally all began to weep and bemoan their lot and then the Superintendent of Police on companying to know of the sad news granted them an interview.
