JUDGMENT

Walmsley, J. - The accused Satyendra Kumar Dutt Choudhuri was placed on his trial upon a charge of murder. The Jury was unanimous in finding him not guilty of murder, and by a majority of four to one it found him not guilty of the lesser offence of culpable homicide. The learned Judge felt himself unable to accept this verdict, and, consequently, made a reference to this Court under the provisions of Section 307, Criminal Procedure Code.

2. The case has some remarkable features, not only in the bold facts of the occurrence as told by the prosecution but also in the conduct of the proceedings in the Court of Session.

3. The accused belongs to the village of Richi and he and his co-sharers are Zemindars of the village. The Zemindars are divided into two hostile groups, Nagendra and Dwijendra forming one group, and the accused and Khirod the other group. These two groups are frequently quarrelling, but they share the same bari. Immediately adjoining this bari is a bari occupied by Amar Kinkar Bhattacharjee and his brothers Prakash and Hara Kinkar.

4. Natabar Tarsa, the deceased, used to be employed as a servant by Satyendra, the accused, but on account of some difference he left