Appeal: Appeal against acquittal – Prosecution case was that on the fateful day when the accused persons were ploughing the disputed land, complainant party objected to their act of ploughing whereafter accused no.1 and 2 fired three gun shots which hit wife of PW-5, PW-6 and PW-7 – Wife of PW-5 died on the spot and PW6 and PW-7 got injured – Trial court convicted accused no.1 and 2 under s.302 r/w s.34 – High Court confirmed conviction of accused no.1, however, acquitted accused no.2 by holding that the identification of accused no.2 was doubtful and therefore he was entitled to benefit of doubt – State’s appeal against acquittal – Held: There was contradiction in prosecution’s case and statement made in the court as to who fired the gun shots – Likewise, the recovery of the weapons from the accused was also not proved by convincing evidence – The post-mortem certificate did not indicate as to whether the gun shots wounds on the body of deceased were caused by rifle or by gun – In absence of definite evidence as to whether the fatal gunshot wounds were caused either by the rifle or by double barrel gun, it cannot be said that the impugned judgment of the High Court acquitting the accused suffered from perversity warranting interference – Penal Code, 1860 – s.302.
Dismissing the appeal, the Court
HELD : The High Court observed that there was dispute as to the identity of accused No.2 and acquitted accused No.2 by holding that the identity of accused No.2 became suspicious. The findings recorded by the High Court is a plausible view which cannot be patently erroneous warranting interference with the judgment of acquittal. Therefore, there was no good ground warranting interference with the order of acquittal insofar as accused No.2 was concerned. [Paras 9, 10] [476-B; E-F]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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