The appellate court must respect the presumption of innocence and not interfere with an acquittal unless the trial court's decision is unreasonable or perverse.

JUDGMENT :

1. This appeal has been filed by the appellant State under Section 378(1)(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 against the judgement and order of acquittal passed by the learned Additional Sessions & Special Judge, Dhrangadhra (hereinafter referred to as "the learned Trial Court") in Special Case No. 10 of 2005 on 03.03.2008, whereby, the learned Trial Court has acquitted the respondents for the offence punishable under Sections 323, 504 and 506(2) of Indian Penal Code, 1860 (hereafter referred to as "IPC" for short) and Section 3(1)(10) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities), 1989.

1.1 The respondent is hereinafter referred to as the accused in the rank and file as he stood in the original case for the sake of convenience, clarity and brevity.

2. The brief facts that emerge from the record of the case are as under:

2.1 That on 02-09-2004, the complainant Hirabhai Khetabhai Parmar was going from the house of the Sarpanch and in the main Bazar, the accused was standing with a stick in his hand and while the complainant pass by, the accused started abusing the complainant and used caste-slurs and threatened to kill him and held his hair and dragged him, as a result of which, the complainant sustained abrasion on the elbow of his left hand. That Dhirajlal Nagardas, Goga Dayaram and Kavabhai Jodhabhai Bharwad came and did not allow the accused to beat him and the released the accused. Both of them went away to their respective houses. That after some tome, once again, the accused came to the house of the complainant and abused him and at that time his wife and Kavabhai Jodhabhai Bharwad came and the accused went away. That, prior to the incident, the accused and the complainant had a verbal altercation about the road and hence the incident has occurred. The complainant filed the complaint at Patadi Police Station underSections 323, 504 and 506(2) of the IPC 1860 and Section 3(1) (10) of Atrocities Act, which was registered as II-C.R.No.10 of 2005 on 02-09-2004.

2.2 The Investigating Officer recorded the statements of the connected witnesses and seized the necessary documents and after completion of investigation, a charge-sheet came to be filed before the Learned Judicial Magistrate First Class, Patadi and as the said offences against the accused was exclusively triable by the Court of Sessions, the case was committed to the Sessions Court, Dhrangadhra as per the provisions of Section 209 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and case was registered Special Case No. 10 of 2005.

2.3 The accused was duly served with the summons and the accused appeared before the learned Trial Court, and it was verified whether the copies of all the police papers were provided to the accused as per the provisions of Section 207 of the Code and a charge at Exh. 8 was framed against the accused and the statement of the accused was recorded at Exh. 9, wherein, the accused denied all the contents of the charge and the entire evidence of the prosecution was taken on record.

2.4 The prosecution produced the following evidence to bring home the charge against the accused.

ORAL EVIDENCE

DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE