Extorting apologies

IT has seldom been our lot to come across a more extraordinary judgment than the one delivered by Pandit Sri Kishan, Magistrate (first class), Amritsar, in the case against Bhai Kapur Singh, editor, and Bhai Hari Singh, printer and publisher of Qaumi Dard. The Magistrate has convicted the accused under Section 124-A, IPC, and sentenced each of them to two years’ rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 200, or in default of payment of fine to a further period of six months’ rigorous imprisonment. The prosecution was based on a notification titled, “Muafi mangawan da nawan dhang” (the new method of extorting apologies) issued by the Akali Dal and published in the newspaper. The article purported to describe the tortures to which Akali prisoners in Nabha were alleged to have been subjected in order to extort apologies from them. The accused pleaded that the allegations made in the article were correct and they were perfectly within their rights in publishing those facts with a view to obtaining redress for a public grievance. In order to prove the truth of the allegations about the treatment of Akali prisoners in Nabha, they fielded a list of 100 defence witnesses, of whom the Magistrate refused to summon as many as 97, and called only three, two of whom were doctors who stated that they had examined the sick or injured persons who had returned from Nabha, while the third was Dr Kitchlew, who deposed to having been present at the firing at Jaito and stated that the facts contained in the article were correct.