In criminal appeals against acquittals, the presumption of innocence prevails and the prosecution must prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt; failure to do so warrants upholding the acquittal.

JUDGMENT :

S.V. PINTO, J.

1. The appeal is filed by the appellant State under Section 378 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 against the judgement and order of acquittal passed by the learned Special (Atrocity) Judge, and 4^th Additional Sessions Judge, Gandhinagar (hereinafter referred to as “the learned Trial Court”) in Special (Atrocity) Case No. 33/2014 on 29.06.2017, whereby, the learned Trial Court has acquitted the respondent for the offence punishable under Sections 323 , 325, 337 and 506(2) of the INDIAN PENAL CODE , 1860 and Section 3(1)(10) of Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (hereinafter referred to as “the Atrocity Act” for short).

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.

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

2.1 On 07.09.2014, at around 20.00 hours, the complainant - Manishkumar Kanhaiyalal Kapadia and his friend Shishir Kantilal Vaghela were going towards Chandkeda - Motera village to get a xerox copy of a document when the accused and Jameel Rathod met them. The complainant greeted Jameel Rathod and the accused got angry and abused and hurled caste slurs against the complainant. The complainant and Shishir started walking towards their house when suddenly the accused came from behind and while they were on the road in front of Urja Complex, the accused caught hold of the shirt of the complainant, threw him on the ground and started assaulting him. Shishir Kantilal Vaghela intervened and while the complainant was trying to run away, the accused threw a stone on the back of the complainant and injured him on his back and he sustained a fracture on his right knee. The complainant filed the complaint at Chandkeda Police Station under Sections 323 , 506(2) and 337 of the INDIAN PENAL CODE and Section 3(1)(10) of the Atrocity Act which came to be registered at Chandkeda Police Station I – C.R. No.170 of 2014.

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 Court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Gandhinagar and as the said offences against the accused were exclusively triable by the Court of Sessions, the case was committed to the Sessions Court, Gandhinagar as per the provisions of Section 209 of Code of Criminal Procedure and the case was registered as Special (Atrocity) Case No. 33/2014.

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. A charge at Exh. 5 was framed against the accused and the statement of the accused was recorded at Exh. 6, wherein, the accused denied the contents of the charge and the entire evidence of the prosecution was taken on record.

2.4 The prosecution examined 10 witnesses and produced 11 documentary evidences on record in support of their case and after the learned Additional Public Prosecutor filed the closing pursis, the further statement of the accused under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 was recorded and after the arguments of the learned Additional Public Prosecutor and the learned advocate for the accused were heard, the learned Trial Court by the impugned judgement and order was pleased to acquit the accused from the charges levelled against him.

3. Being aggrieved and dissatisfied w