The appellate court affirmed the trial court's acquittal due to insufficient evidence, emphasizing the presumption of innocence and that conflicting witness testimonies do not establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

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 Additional Sessions Judge, Dhoraji (hereinafter referred to as “the learned Trial Court”) in Sessions Case No. 74/2009 on 17.04.2012, whereby, the learned Trial Court has acquitted the respondents for the offence punishable under Sections 323 , 324, 504 and 506(2) read with Section 114 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 respondents are hereinafter referred to as “the accused” in the rank and file as they 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 27.01.2009, at around 06.15 pm, the complainant - Narsinhbhai Bijalbhai Devra went to the tea stall of Kanubhai situated opposite Bhagwat Singhji’s Girls School in Dhoraji with his friends Raju Bagda, Bharat Sondarva and Vijay Kishan. At that time, while they were drinking tea, Taufiq - the servant of Kanubhai was present and the complainant asked Taufiq who was demolishing the house next to the tea stall and the accused nos. 1 and 2 who were present started abusing the complainant and asked the complainant who was he to inquire about the same. The accused no. 1 telephoned and called the other accused and the accused nos. 3 and 4 came and started abusing the complainant. The accused no. 3 had a knife and gave one blow on the left side of the head of the complainant with the knife. The accused no. 4 had an iron claw and gave a punch on the left side of the head of the complainant with the iron claw and the accused nos. 1 and 2 beat the complainant with fists. The complainant started shouting and his friends intervened and the accused threatened to kill him. The complainant filed the complaint before the Dhoraji City Police Station under Sections 324 , 323, 504, 506(2) and 114 of the INDIAN PENAL CODE and Section 3(1)(10) of the Atrocity Act and Section 135 of the BP Act which came to be registered as Dhoraji City Police Station I – C.R. No. 10 of 2009.

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 Judicial Magistrate First Class, Dhoraji and as the said offences against the accused were exclusively triable by the Court of Sessions, the case was committed to the Sessions Court, Dhoraji as per the provisions of Section 209 of Code of Criminal Procedure and the case was registered as Sessions Case No. 74/2009.

2.3 The accused were 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. 11 was framed against the accused and the statement of the accused was recorded at Exhs. 12, 13, 14 and 15 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 17 witnesses and produced 14 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 arg