AIR 1957 RAJASTHAN 126 ::1957 RajLW 122 ::ILR (1957) 7 Raj 560

Rajasthan High Court

Hon'ble Judge(s): Modi , J

Criminal P.C. (5 of 1898) , S.512— Absconded' - Meaning of - Offenders belonging to Pakistan committing crime in Indian territories and then running back to Pakistan - They can be said to have 'absconded'. Words and Phrases - 'Absconded'. "Absconding" does not necessarily mean absconding from one's residence although usually when a person is hiding from his place of residence he is said to abscond. The primary meaning of this word is "to hide". A person may hide even in his place of residence or away from it and in either case he will be absconding when he does so. Wharton's Law Lexicon (Fourteenth Edition) gives the meaning of the word 'abscond' as "to fly the country in order to escape arrest for crime." Having regard to this meaning of the word it is clear that the country or the place which an offender quits or flies from, need not be the country where he lives or has his home. It may as well be the country where he has committed a crime and where, therefore, he would be ordinarily liable to be tried according to the law of that country and from where he escapes the arm of the law. Where, therefore a person having committed an offence in a particular country leaves it, he must be said to abscond so far as that country and its laws are concerned. Thus where the offenders who admittedly belonged to Pakist....