The prosecution must prove the charges against the accused beyond a reasonable doubt for a conviction.

R.P. Dholaria, J.

1. The appellant State of Gujarat has preferred the present appeal under section 378(1) (3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 against the judgment and order of acquittal dated 8.9.2006 rendered by learned Additional Sessions Judge, Fast Track Court No. 4, Bharuch in Special Atrocity Case No. 30 of 2005.

2. The short facts giving rise to the present appeal are that on 23.7.2005 at about 7.00 hours in the evening, the respondents assembled at village Kobala at the house of Chhaganbhai Becharbhai Parmar i.e. complainant and picked up quarrel and uttered derogatory words concerning to the caste of the complainant and threatened him to kill if the land is not returned to the accused. Hence, the complaint came to be lodged against the respondents accused.

3. In pursuance of the complaint, the Investigating Officer carried out the investigation and filed the charge-sheet against the respondents accused. The charge was framed against the accused. The accused pleaded not guilty to the charge and claimed to be tried.

3.1 In order to bring home the guilt, the prosecution has examined 16 witnesses and also produced documentary evidences such as original complaint Exh.10, panchnama of scene of offence Exh.16, map of scene of offence Exh.34 etc.

3.2 At the end of the trial, after recording the statements of the accused under section 313 of the CrPC and hearing the arguments on behalf of the prosecution and the defence, learned trial Court delivered the judgment and order, as stated above.

4. Being aggrieved by the same, the appellant State has preferred the aforesaid Criminal Appeal before this Court.

5. By way of preferring the present appeal, the appellant has mainly contended that learned trial Court has failed to appreciate the evidence on record and wrongly recorded the order of acquittal. It is further contended that learned trial Judge has not appreciated the evidence on record in its proper perspective and in fact, there was no appreciation of evidence so far and hence, the impugned judgment and order of acquittal is required to be reversed, as such.

5.1 Mr. L.R. Pujari, learned APP appearing for the appellant State has reiterated and urged the grounds mentioned in the memo of appeal. Learned APP has taken this Court through the paper-book and evidence on record and argued that learned trial Court failed to appreciate the evidence on record though ample evidence is available on record for the alleged offences. In his submission, therefore, learned trial Court ought to have convicted the accused and hence, learned trial Court has failed to appreciate the evidence on record and wrongly recorded the judgment of acquittal which is required to be reversed and the respondents are required to be convicted, as such.

6. On the other-hand, Mr. S.K. Bukhari, learned Advocate for the respondents accused has taken this Court through the entire evidence on record and submitted that the impugned judgment and order passed by the learned trial Judge is just and proper. Mr. Bukhari further submitted that there is no iota of evidence available against the present accused. He submitted that no such incident was occurred while they gathered for arriving at the compromise as regards to agricultural land and the entire case is concocted by the complainant and wrongfully implicated the present respondents with the crime in question. He, therefore, submitted that in view of the evidence on record, it cannot be said that the learned trial Judge has committed any error in passing the impugned order acquitting the accused, and therefore, the present appeal deserves to be dismissed.

7. This Court has heard Mr. L.R. Pujari, learned APP for the appellant State and Mr. S.K. Bukhari, learned advocate for the respondents accused.

8. This Court has minutely gone through the impugned judgment rendered by learned trial Court as well as the evidence on record in the nature of paper book. As per the prosecution case, on 23.7.2005 at about 7.00 hour