JUDGMENT

Pullan, J. - Seven persens, Nazir, Jumma, Shera, Idu, Sukhan, Harbans and Pheru, have been convicted by the Sessions Judge of Muzaffarnagar of an offence u/s 396, I.P.C, and have been sentenced each to 8 years' R.I. The prisoners have submitted appeals from jail against their conviction, and an application has been made in revision on behalf of the Local Government requesting this Court to enhance the sentences passed upon these persons.

2. A dacoity of a ferocious nature took place on the night of 19th/20th October, 1930, at the house of Prabhu Lal Vaish in the village of Kaserwa.the dacoits, who are said to have numbered more than 30, were armed with guns, lathis and probably spears. Two men who interfered with them were shot dead, and another was beaten to death with lathis. The women were grossly ill-used, one or more were violated, and one was tortured. In my opinion a sentence of 8 years' R.I. in such a case is inadequate. No sentence less than transportation for life should be imposed upon any, of those persons who take part in a dacoity of this nature. It does not appear that the learned Sessions Judge had any doubt that the persons whom he convicted were guilty, and he has praised the police officers who conducted the investigation for their good work. We regret that we have been unable to agree with the learned Judge either in his commendation of the police investigation or in the view taken by him as to the guilt of the majority of those persons whom he has convicted.

3. The case was reported by Faqira chaukidar at 8 a. m. on 20th October. The 1st portion of the report is a straightforward description of the affair. At the end a suggestion is made that the dacoity was the work of the congress party organised by the congress captain Lal Singh jar. This part of the report does not appear to be the work of the chaukidar, and we are not surprised to find that the chaukidar denied emphatically that he had made this addition.

4. It appears that at that time there was much political trouble in this police circle, and it may very well be that the police officers who heard the report made thought that the dacoity might be the work of the congress party, and they clearly commenced the investigation on this supposition. It appears that they were mistaken, and it is only fair to the police officers concerned to say that they did not persist in attempting to implicate members of the congress party when they found that there was no evidence in support of this view. (The judgment then narrated the progress of investigation upto the identification of the accused and proceeded.) On 3rd February identification proceedings were conducted in jail by a Magistrate of the first class, Mr. Gobind Prasad Mathur. The persons pufi up for identification were Nazir Jumma, Nahar, Risal, Fateh Muhammad, Shera, Idu, Sukhan, Jhandu, Harbans, Pheru, Bias, Baru and Aiman. the result of the identification is given in the report made by the Magistrate at the time. It is true that all the present appellants were identified by one or other of the witnesses, and the learned Sessions Judge has accepted these identifications as being evidence against them.

5. There is nothing in the judgment to show that the identification is rendered valueless by the fact that the witnesses in every case picked out more persons who were not suspected than persons who were suspected, and in most cases were so reckless in their identifications that they might well have made them blindfold. Thus Prabhu, the complainant, identified two of the accused persons and 14 who were not connected with the affair; Dalip identified 5 accused persons and 21 others; Fateh Singh identified 8 accused persons and 14 others. Those who were less reckless identified persons who have been acquitted, notably Fateh Muhammad, who is stated in the first confession of Ilias to have remained in a grove and not to have gone to the village, and has been acquitted by the Judge on the ground that he wa