In acquittal appeals, courts maintain a presumption of innocence, only reversing if the trial court's conclusions are unjustifiable based on the evidence presented.

JUDGMENT :

S.V. PINTO, J.

1. This 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 3^rd Additional Sessions Judge, Ahmedabad (Rural) at Mirzapur (hereinafter referred to as “the learned Trial Court”) in Special Atrocity Case No. 34/2010 on 31.10.2012, whereby, the learned Trial Court has acquitted the respondents for the offence punishable under Sections 323 , 325, 504, 506(2) and 114 of IPC and Section 3(1)(10) of Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (hereinafter referred to as “the Act” for short).

1.1 The respondents are hereinafter referred to as “the accused” 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 29.07.2005, the complainant - Khanabai Motibhai Jadhav had gone at 08.00 am with his cattle for grazing in a field known as Ven in the outskirts of Varana village and while the cattle were grazing, the accused no. 1 came and asked him why he was at this place with his cattle and when the complainant told him that it was his brother's land, the accused no. 1 took the spade that was in his hand and tried to hit the complainant and the complainant got afraid and tried to run away and the spade was hit on the right flank of the complainant. The complainant fell down and at that time the accused no. 2 came and beat the complainant with fists and as the complainant started shouting, his brother - Manubhai Khabhabai Jadhav intervened and released him from further beatings. The accused threatened him that if he was found alone, they would kill him and abused him and hurled castle slurs against him and the complainant filed the complaint which was registered as Koth Police Station II – C.R. No. 54 of 2005 under Sections 323 , 504, 506(2) and 114 of the INDIAN PENAL CODE and Section 3(1)(10) of the Atrocity 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 Court of Judicial Magistrate First Class, Dholka and as the said offences against the accused were exclusively triable by the Court of Sessions, the case was committed to the Sessions Court, Ahmedabad (Rural) as per the provisions of Section 209 of Code of Criminal Procedure and the case was registered as Atro (Special) Case No. 24/2008.

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. 3 was framed against the accused and the statements of the accused was recorded at Exhs. 4 and 5 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

DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE