Judgment

SARKAR, J. :- There are three appellants in this case. They had been prosecuted for various offences under the Indian Penal Code and acquitted by the trial Court. On appeal, the High Court of Punjab convicted the appellant Roshan Lal, a Sub-Inspector of Police, under Ss. 330 and 348 of the Code. The High Court also convicted all the three appellants under S. 201 of the Code. This appeal is against the judgment of the High Court with special leave. That leave was however confined only to the question as to the legality of the term of imprisonment imposed under S. 201.

2. The High Court found that Roshan Lal, with a police party which included the two other appellants one of whom was an Assistant Sub-Inspector and the other a police constable, arrested a man called Raja Ram on a public street on suspicion that he was an opium smuggler, took him to his house and when no contraband opium was found there, the appellant Roshan Lal got very angry and hit him on the head with his baton which injured his eye. In respect of this injury the appellant Roshan Lal was convicted on one count under. S. 330 of the Code. After this beating Raja Ram was taken by the police party to the police