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Supreme Court of India
B.S. CHAUHAN & DIPAK MISRA, JJ.
State of Madhya Pradesh
Versus
Dal Singh & Others
Criminal Appeal No. 2303 of 2009
Decided On : 21-05-2013
Appeal against acquittal- It is a settled legal proposition that in exceptional circumstances, the appellate court for compelling reasons should not hesitate to reverse a judgment of acquittal passed by the court below, if the findings so recorded by the court below are found to be perverse, , or if the court’s entire approach with respect to dealing with the evidence is found to be patently illegal, leading to the miscarriage of justice, or if its judgment is unreasonable and is based on an erroneous understanding of the law and of the facts of the case- While doing so, the appellate court must bear in mind the presumption of innocence in favour of the accused, and also that an acquittal by the court below bolsters such presumption of innocence (Para 6)
Facts of the Case :
Respondent accused persons husband and in laws of deceased were prosecuted herein in the instant case for pouring kerosene on her and setting her on fire. Trial Court convicted respondent accused persons for said offence. However Appeal thereagainst was Allowed by High Court acquitting respondent accused persons on the ground that a person with 100 per cent burns could neither affix a thumb impression, nor manage to speak.
Findings of the Court :
The Supreme Court held that Upon proper appreciation of the evidence on record, trial court had found the dying declarations to be entirely believable, and worth placing reliance upon, but High Court on a rather flimsy ground, without appreciating material facts, had taken a contrary view. Impugned judgment passed by High Court was set aside and that of Trial Court was restored. Appeal was allowed.
Result : Appeal allowed
Judgment :-
Dr. B.S. Chauhan, J.
1. This appeal has been preferred against the impugned judgment and order dated 30.8.2006, passed by the High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Jabalpur in Criminal Appeal No.2152 of 2003, by way of which it has set aside the conviction of the respondents under Sections 498-A and 302, read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (hereinafter referred to as the ‘IPC’) and acquitted them.
2. Facts and circumstances giving rise to this appeal are :-
A. That the deceased Kusum Rani got married to Hallu @ Chandrabhan, the 2nd respondent herein, in the year 2001. In her marital home, she was ill-treated by her parents-in-law, respondents 1 and 3 herein. They would constantly tell her that she was incapable of doing the house work properly, and her mother-in-law did not give her sufficient food to eat.
B. On 29.11.2002 at noon, when the deceased returned home after her bath in the pond, her mother-in-law hurled abuses at her and inquired what she had been doing at the pond. When she replied that she had been washing clothes there, her mother-in-law gave her few slaps, as a result of which the deceased began to cry. Her mother-in-law then directed her husband to burn her alive. Her father-in-law had thus poured kerosene on her and had asked his wife to set her on fire, as a result of which her mother-in-law lit a matchstick and threw the same at her. Since the deceased began to scream, her parents-in-law came out of the house and bolted the door from the outside. On hearing her shriek, a few villagers sent news of the same to her parents who resided in a neighboring village, at a distance of about half a kilometer. Her father, mother and uncle thus came to the place of occurrence. The door was opened by them, and the deceased was taken out.
C. The deceased Kusum narrated the said incident to her parents, and thereafter she was taken in a trolley to the Police Station, Nohta in a severely burnt condition, where she herself lodged a report narrating the incident, and at about 2 p.m., on the basis of the complaint, an FIR, Ex.P-17 was recorded.
D. The Investigating Agency made all the necessary arrangements in order to record her dying declaration and the Executive Magistrate P.K. Chaturvedi (PW.12), was called for the aforementioned purpose. Her dying declaration was recorded by the Executive Magistrate and subsequently, the deceased was admitted to the Government Hospital, Damoh at 3.25 p.m., where she died at 3.35 p.m. Intimation of her death was communicated by the hospital officials to the Police. The Investigating Agency thus took over the dead body of the deceased, and sent it for post-mortem. They also seized all the necessary articles from the spot, prepared the panchnama, and after recording the statements of the witnesses, submitted a charge sheet before the competent court, which in turn, committed the case to the Court of Sessions. Hence, trial commenced after framing charges under Sections 498-A, 302 and 306 IPC. The accused persons abjured their guilt.
E. In order to prove the charges, the prosecution examined as many as 17 witnesses, and placed reliance on Ex.P1 to P24. The respondents-accused took the defence of an alibi in their statement recorded under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Cr.P.C’), stating that they had been in their agricultural field at the time of the said incident and it was here that they had received information about the incident. The deceased had committed suicide and they were being falsely been implicated. F. The learned Additional Sessions Judge, Damoh, in Sessions Trial No.305 of 2002, vide judgment and order dated 6.12.2003, after appreciating the material on record, recorded findings of fact to the effect that the deceased had not committed suicide, and that the respondents-accused were guilty of the offences punishable under Sections 498-A and 302, r/w Section 34 IPC. They were convicted and sentenced under Section
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