The appellate court upheld the acquittal, emphasizing the presumption of innocence and the necessity for the prosecution to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

JUDGMENT :

1. The present present appeal is 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 Special Judge (Atrocity), Mehsana (hereinafter referred to as “the learned Trial Court”) in Special Atrocity Case No. 17/2007 on 05.10.2007, whereby, the learned Trial Court has acquitted the respondent for the offence punishable under Sections 323, 504 and 506(2) of IPC and Sections 3(1)(10) of Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (hereinafter referred to as “the Atrocities Act”).

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

1.2 The respondent no. 2 – original complainant has expired during the pendency of the appeal on 15.09.2012 and the death certificate of the respondent no. 2 has been produced on record.

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

2.1 On 22.11.2006, at around 08.30 pm, the complainant Jiviben w/o Somabhai Maganbhai Senma was alone at home as her husband and sons had gone outside and both her daughters-in-law had gone to the hospital. Her sister-in- law was at home and she was sitting outside when the accused came to her house and asked about her son – Babubhai and she told him that her son had gone to Kadi. That the accused told her to send her son to meet him whenever he returns and if he does not come, he would be killed and showed a knife to the complainant and hurled caste slurs on the complainant and threatened to kill her and went away. That her nephew Kishorbhai came and she narrated the events to him and he went to meet the accused at his hotel and at that time, the accused abused him, threatened to kill him and slapped him and he came home and told her what had taken place. That after some time, the accused was roaming in front of their street with a farsi in his hand and as her son Babubhai had a contract of digging work near Vidaj village and the contract was not given to the complainant, he had a grudge and the incident has occurred. The complainant filed the complaint at Kadi Police Station which was registered at II – C.R. No. 163/2006 under Sections 323 and 506(2) of IPC and Section 3(1)(10) of the Atrocities Act and Section 135 of the Bombay Police Act.

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, Kadi and as the said offences against the accused were exclusively triable by the Court of Sessions, the case was committed to the Sessions Court, Mehsana as per the provisions of Section 209 of Code of Criminal Procedure and the case was registered as Special Atrocity Case No. 17/2007.

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. 2 was framed against the accused and the statement of the accused was recorded at Exh. 3, wherein, the accused denied 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