KALBADEVI SHOOTING CASE-1946

KALBADEVI SHOOTING CASE-1946

Emperor

versus

(1) Mirza Abdul Majid
(2) Gulam Ahmed alias Akhtar Hussein

    On 14th September 1946, Bombay was startled and shocked by a crime of a most extraordinary and unprecedented nature. It was of such a magnitude and of such reckless and atrocious character, that it could be explained only as the insane act of some murderous maniacs, or the sudden running amock of an unbalanced individual, in a frenzy of frustration or fanaticism. But the plea of insanity was not taken; and indeed, was not possible in the circumstances of the case; for, it was clearly a preplanned, deliberate and calculated act. The two accused were both Muslims and army men; and upto 8th September 1946, they were what are called telephone operators in No.2 Company, Signallers, Eastern Command at Tollygunj (Calcutta). On 8th September these two men deserted from the army, effecting their escape from their Unit in a military lorry, after stealing some arms and ammunition from the armoury of the Company. The lorry was afterwards found abandoned at a place about 25 miles from Calcutta. Thereafter, it seems that they travelled to Bombay armed with a rifle, two sten guns, two revolvers and a large quantity of ammunition. On the morning of 14th September 1946, they engaged a taxi near Byculla Railway Station. The taxi belonged to a Parsi named Nariman, who was driving it and his son, a lad of about 16 or 17, sitting by his side at the time. The two accused asked the driver to drive to Mohammed Ali Road. He demurred, saying that it was a disturbed and dangerous locality. Ultimately, however, he agreed to do so, and was directed to take the men first near some chawls at the junction of Killedar Street and Haines Road. There the taxi was stopped. One of the men got out and returned after 5 or 10 minutes with a tin trunk which was placed on the rear seat.

    After taking the trunk, the two men proceeded along Kalbadevi Road. The taxi was stopped at a place opposite a shop known as Tanman Cap Shop. At this spot, Sam, the son of the driver, was asked to get down and look out for a cap shop. One of the two passengers in the taxi then got out and immediately began firing with a weapon which, from the description given by witnesses, appeared to have been some sort of machine-gun, or it may be a sten gun. Thereafter, the other passenger in the taxi came from behind to the driver's seat and asked Nariman to get out of the taxi. At that stage Nariman saw that his son Sam was among the persons who were wounded by the shooting, and he hurried to his assistance as he found him bleeding. After Nariman had got down from the taxi, the other man got into the driver's seat, and the first man with the machine gun got back into the rear seat, and the taxi then proceeded south along Kalbadevi Road. It was the prosecution case that the man who was driving the car was also firing from the off side front window of the taxi with a revolver. The taxi went on to the junction of Kalbadevi Road with Princess Street. Just beyond the junction the taxi, in trying to pass another car on the wrong side of the road, collided with that car damaging the mudguards of the taxi; but it went on further, and thereafter it was not seen again until it was found abandoned sometime between 11 a.m. and 12 noon on the same day at a spot on Jail Road south. It seems that after the collision with the other car, there was no more shooting.

    It appeared that in the course of this wild and reckless orgy of shooting in a congested locality in broad daylight, seven persons were killed and twenty more were injured by bullet wounds. Some victoria horses were also hit. Some of the seven persons killed died on the spot. Others died later in the hospital. The persons hit by the bullets were some on the road and some were in shops adjoining the road.

    The charge against the two accused was that on the morning of 14th September, about 10-30, in furtherance of their common intention, they committed the murders of seven persons at Kalbadevi Road; and further that they attempted to commit, in the course of the same transaction, the murders of twenty other persons, causing serious injuries to some of them.

    In this state of things and on the charges stated above, the two accused were put up for trial before Mr. Justice Weston. who was appointed Special Judge under section 11 of the Bombay Public Security Measures Act, 1947, on Monday, 23rd June 1947. The case lasted for several days and a large number of witnesses were examined. The prosecution was conducted by Purshotam Tricumdas with Khandalawalla, and Somjee with Peerbhoy appeared for the defence.

    It should be noted that 14th September was only a fortnight after the outbreak of serious communal riots between Hindus and Mussalmans in Bombay; and there could be no doubt, as the prosecution maintained, that this indiscriminate shooting was one of the consequences of the communal riots, in which both Hindus and Mussalmans indulged in reckless killing of innocent persons, purely out of communal hatred. The locality, in the present case, was overwhelmingly Hindu; and all the shops belonged to Hindus except one kept by a Farsi; and, in fact, all the persons killed or injured, except the lad Sam, and another Parsi, were Hindus. The accused after this wild orgy of shooting and killing appeared to have disappeared from Bombay. Accused No. 1 was ultimately arrested on information received from Bombay by the Calcutta police at Calcutta on 9th November 1946. Accused No.2 was arrested at Ahmedabad on 15th November 1946.

    At the trial, it was clearly proved by the evidence of a number of witnesses that the persons killed and injured at Kalbadevi Road were all the victims of reckless firing by two, men in a taxi between 10-30 and 11 a.m. It was clear that the men who fired the bullets in such a crowded and congested locality intended to cause the death of, or serious bodily injury to, the persons who might be struck by the bullets fired from the guns; and the offences would be as charged. The only question was as to who were the two persons who fired these shots on the fatal morning. In view of the evidence produced, there was little doubt that the persons who indulged in this frenzied frolic of bloodshed from the taxi were the two accused. There was hardly any defence, except that some feeble attempt was made by counsel for the accused to question the identity of the persons who had fired the shots. On this evidence, the judge after a very careful hearing, had no hesitation in coming to the conclusion that the two accused were the persons who were proved to have taken part in this murderous shooting. On the charge of murder, as the learned judge observed, for a crime of this character, there could be only one sentence; and he accordingly sentenced each of the two accused to death.

    The tragedy of the case lies in this that the accused had no private grudge impelling them to indulge in such a wild campaign of wholesale murder and massacre. It was clearly the result of communal hatred which, unfortunately at this season, influenced and inflamed wild, impulsive, and unbalanced men among both Hindus and Mussalmans; and cases had occurred in Bombay and elsewhere of fanatics of one community assaulting and stabbing innocent men of the other community. The ultimate responsibility for crimes of this character must lie on those who by their speeches and writings inflame communal feelings and sow the seeds of enmity and hatred between communities. There are in all, communities excitable, impressionable and immature minds. Words calculated to excite the passions and feelings of the hearers sometimes find congenial soil, and result in violent crimes. Such instances occasionally occur; but seldom of such magnitude and of such utter recklessness. They are the fatal fruits of religious or communal hatred and fanaticism all the world over. All great movements, said Hitler, are prompted and provoked by the spoken and not the written word. But they are generally deeds of violence, war and carnage, such as the speeches of the archmaniac of History, Hitler, provoked. Wild outbursts of racial, religious or communal hatred have everywhere and all throughout human history led to war, bloodshed and devastation. They sway the hearers, and are applauded by unthinking multitudes; and the fanatic is hailed as a great patriot.

    Perhaps the great speech of Mark Antony in Shakespeare provides the best illustration of how mobs are swayed to mutiny and murder by the power of the spoken word:

                " But were I Brutus,
                 And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony
                Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue
                In every wound of Caesar, that should move
                The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny ! "
                                                                 -Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene II.

    And the response of the Roman rabble to this moving and masterly speech was immediately to resort to mutiny, killing and burning. Great speeches indeed provoke great deeds of a sort !

    Unprovoked fanatical murders of this kind, committed in a frenzy of religious fervour, have occasionally been known in Bombay. About 1921, a Pathan was put up for trial before Mr. Justice Fawcett at the Criminal Sessions of the Bombay High Court. He was apparently a wild man from the north. One Sunday morning he was at prayers in the Jumma Masjid, Bombay. After participating in the prayers, the man in a frenzy of religious fanaticism turned "Ghazi", ran amock, and rushing out of the Masjid with a murderous knife in his hand, indiscriminately stabbed all and sundry who came in his way as being "Kafirs". About five men were stabbed. Most of them were poor Goanese cooks, who were proceeding from the Crawford Market down Shaikh Memon Street, and one was a Hindu policeman who had very bravely tried to grapple with him. As the maniac rushed down the road with his knife dripping with blood, people ran helter skelter. All those who came in his path were stabbed. Two other policemen were pursuing him, but were naturally afraid to grapple with him, unarmed as they were. Luckily a young Parsi, named Dadi Edalji Nanji, observed the maniac coming down the road. With great presence of mind, he stepped aside into a by lane; and just as the maniac reached the spot brandishing his bloody knife, he rushed out from where he was hiding, gave a sharp blow on the face and tripped the Pathan who fell down, and with the help of the two policemen he pinned the murderer down to the ground, and he was secured.

    While in prison awaiting trial, the man was kept under observation to ascertain if he was insane. But he was certified to be quite sane and fit to stand his trial. The man was tried and Mr. Justice Fawcett sentenced him to death. Further bloodshed was prevented, due entirely to the courage and presence of mind of the young Parsi. Mr. Justice Fawcett complimented him openly in court for his pluck and presence of mind; and the Police Commissioner of Bombay presented him with a gold watch and chain in appreciation of his courage and public spirit. Unfortunately, this gallant young man died not long after this rare feat of heroism; and his name and deed are both forgotten. Mere verbal valour, unaccompanied by any deeds of practical courage, is at times better remembered and commemorated in our midst. Such are the standards of values in human estimation!

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