The prosecution failed to prove the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt, leading to their acquittal despite initial convictions for custodial violence resulting in death.

JUDGMENT :

Sandeep Mehta, J.

The instant appeal is directed against the judgment dated 13th February, 2017 passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Gujarat in Criminal Appeal No. 210 of 1997, whereby, the Division Bench partly accepted the appeal preferred by the accused appellant Vinod Jaswantray Vyas and altered his conviction as recorded by the trial Court for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860(hereinafter being referred to as 'IPC') to one under Section 304 Part I IPC and sentenced him to undergo eight years rigorous imprisonment and further directed that he shall pay a compensation of Rs. 50,000/-to the heirs of the deceased.

2. Learned Additional City Sessions Judge, Ahmedabad (hereinafter being referred to as the 'trial Court') tried the accused appellant Vinod Jaswantray Vyas (Original accused No.1)(hereinafter being referred to as 'A1') and his co-accused Chinubhai Govindbhai Patel (Original accused No.2)(hereinafter being referred to as 'A2') for the offences punishable under Section 302 read with Section 114 IPC and vide judgment dated 4th March, 1997, the learned trial Court proceeded to convict both the accused for the above offences and sentenced them to imprisonment for life and fine of Rs. 25,000/- each, in default, to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of two years.

3. A1 and A2 preferred separate appeals before the Gujarat High Court being Criminal Appeal Nos. 210 of 1997 and 226 of 1997 respectively, to challenge the judgment dated 4th March, 1997 passed by the learned trial Court. A2 expired during the pendency of the appeal before the High Court. However, being a Government servant, the question of his conviction had a direct bearing on his death-cum-retiral benefits and thus, his legal heirs applied for and were granted permission to prosecute the appeal further. Both appeals were decided by a learned Division Bench of the Gujarat High Court vide common judgment dated 13th February, 2017 and the learned Division Bench proceeded to affirm the findings of the learned trial Court holding that A1 and A2 had subjected Jeeva(deceased) to physical violence in police custody and thereby, the findings of guilt were affirmed. However, the offence was toned down from Section 302 IPC to offence under Section 304 Part I IPC and the sentence was modified as above.

4. Only A1 approached this Court to challenge the impugned judgments whereas, the legal heirs of the co-accused, A2 have not challenged his conviction. Leave was granted by this Court on 27th November, 2017.

5. During the pendency of the appeal, the sentence awarded to the accused appellant(A1) was suspended vide order dated 6th June, 2017 and he was directed to be released on bail. However, A1 also passed away during pendency of the instant appeal and accordingly, by an order dated 12th August, 2022 his legal heirs were taken on record and were allowed to continue the appeal by virtue of provisions contained in Section 394 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973(hereinafter being referred to as 'CrPC'), so as to seek service benefits of the original appellant Vinod Jaswantray Vyas(since deceased) in the event of the acceptance of the appeal.

Brief facts: -

6. The accused appellant(A1) was posted as a Police Inspector at Amraiwadi Police Station, Ahmedabad. One Jeeva had appeared and surrendered at the said police station in the late hours of the night on 10th June, 1992 as he had been arraigned as an accused in C.R. No. 555 of 1992 registered at the said police station for the offences punishable under Sections 143, 147, 148, 149, 307, 323, 324 and 427 IPC. He was also accompanied by the co-accused Anna Dorai.

7. Jeeva had come to surrender at the police station along with his advocate Shri Patanwadia and his two sisters namely, Selvin Prabhakar(PW-1) and Dhanlakshmi Vaiyapuri(PW-2). The advocate Shri Patanwadia left after production of Jeeva at the police station, however, the two sisters remained behind.

8. The o