Appeal: State’s appeal against acquittal – Prosecution case was that accused no.3, the wife of the victim-deceased had illicit relation with accused no.1 and on account of this accused no.1 and accused no.3 along with accused no.2 hatched a conspiracy and eliminated the victim-deceased – Trial court convicted all the accused persons under s.302 r/w s.34 and 120B IPC by relying on the extra judicial confessions – High Court maintained the conviction of accused no.1, however, acquitted accused no.2 and 3 on the ground that the evidence of the prosecution witnesses in particular PW-2 , PW-20 and PW-4 did not establish the guilt of A-2 and A-3 beyond reasonable doubt – State’s appeal against acquittal of A-2 and A-3 – Held: Extra judicial confession is a weak piece of evidence, which cannot form basis for conviction unless supported by other substantive evidence, which is lacking in this case – Insofar as accused no.3 is concerned, prosecution relied upon photographs recovered on the disclosure statement of A-3 and also examined PW-12 (photographer) who stated that A-1 and A-3 came to his studio and took joint photographs – The said photographs at the most may only show that A-1 and A-3 had illicit relationship – No evidence was adduced to prove that A-3 had hatched conspiracy with A-2 to commit the murder of the deceased – There was no ‘compelling reason’ or ‘substantial infirmity’ warranting interference with the order of acquittal of A-2 and A-3 – Appeals dismissed – Penal Code, 1860 – s.302 r/w s.34 and 120B – Evidence – Extra judicial confession.
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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