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PETITIONER: AMJAD KHAN
Vs.
RESPONDENT: THE STATE
DATE OF JUDGMENT: 20/03/1952
BENCH: BOSE, VIVIAN BENCH: BOSE, VIVIAN FAZAL ALI, SAIYID
CITATION: 1952 AIR 165 1952 SCR 567 CITATOR INFO : R 1957 SC1674 (8) F 1960 SC 67 (7) D 1990 SC1459 (36)
ACT: Indian penal Code (Act XLV of 1860), ss. 97, 102 and 105 Right of private defence--Reasonable apprehension of death or grievous hurt.
HEADNOTE: A communal riot broke out in a town between some Sindhi refugees and the local Muslims. The trouble started in a locality where most of the shopkeepers were Sindhis. The goods in the Muslim shops there were scattered and some Muslims lost their lives. Alarm spread to another locality where the shops of appellant and his brother (both Muslims) were situated and the people there, including the appellant, started closing their shops. The family of the appellant’s brother had taken shelter in the appellant’s portion of the building through a hole in the wall between the two portions of the building in which the two shops were situated. A mob collected there and approached the appellant’s locality and looted his brother’s shop and began to beat the doors of his shop with lathis. The appellant fired two shots from his gun which caused the death of one Sindhi and injured three other Sindhis. The question for determination was whether...