IMPORTANT POINT
The judgment reinforces that an acquittal can only be overturned if the appellate court finds a clear error in the trial court's assessment of evidence.

ORDER :

1. This criminal appeal under Section 378 (III) & (I) of the Cr.P.C. has been preferred by the appellant-State who laid a challenge to the judgment of acquittal dated 06.11.2009, passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Didwana, District Nagaur in Sessions Case No.7/2008 (State of Rajasthan Vs. Ugma Ram & Ors.), whereby the accused respondents were acquitted for the offence under Sections 148, 302, 302/149, 323 & 323/149 of the Indian Penal Code.

2. The matter pertains to an incident which occurred in the year 2008 and the present appeal has been pending since the year 2010.

3. Brief facts of the case, as placed before this Court by Mr. Yogendra Charan, learned AAAG appearing on behalf of the appellant-State, are that the incident happened on 15.03.2008 at about 7:00 pm at village Mandukara whereby it was reported by the complainant Raju Ram, who was subsequently examined as PW-3 during the trial. He stated that all the relatives were having separate Dhani near his Dhani. While he was studying, deceased Ramniwas S/o Baba Chokha Ram came to his house alongwith one Deepa Ram Dudi. The complainant submitted that in the evening at about 5:00 pm when Ramniwas was returning home, he was attacked by Ugma Ram, Kunaram, Babulal, Raju Devi W/o Ugma Ram and Sohni Devi W/o Kunaram who were carrying Lathis, Kassiya and Axes with them. The omnibus allegations were lodged on all the accused for causing blows to the body of the deceased. The complainant’s version is that he himself tried to save, but he received injuries and therefore escaped from the place of incident.

4. On the basis of the aforementioned information, an FIR bearing No.14/2008 was registered and the investigation commenced accordingly. After investigation, the police filed the charge-sheet under Sections 147, 148, 149, 341, 302, & 323 IPC against the five accused persons, and the trial commenced accordingly.

5. During the course of the trial, the evidence of nineteen prosecution witnesses were recorded, however no defence witness were examined; 58 documents were exhibited on behalf of the prosecution whereas no document was exhibited on behalf of the accused-respondents; thereafter, the accused-respondents were examined under Section 313 Cr.P.C., wherein the accused-respondents pleaded innocence and their false implication in the criminal case in question.

6. Thereafter, upon hearing the contentions of both the parties as well as after considering the material and evidence placed on record, the learned trial Court, acquitted the accused-respondents, vide the impugned judgment dated 06.11.2009, against which the present appeal has been preferred on behalf of the appellant-State.

7. Learned counsel for the appellant-state has drawn the attention of this Court towards the deposition of PW-3 Raju Ram and has submitted that since he has himself received three injuries, his presence at the site is undisputed and he is a credible witness; therefore, his testimony should be sufficient to prove the cause of death in question of the deceased.

7.1 Learned State counsel has pointed towards Ex.-P/3 which is the injury report of the complainant PW-3 Raju Ram. He further submits that the FIR was lodged in time, the weapons were recovered, FSL was conducted, all the weapons were having blood stains and thus the story of the prosecution has been proved beyond reasonable doubt.

7.2 Learned State counsel also submits that PW-2 Dr. V.K. Garg submitted that a rigor mortis occurred due to the death taking place 12 to 24 hours prior. Though PW-2 admitted that there was a single injury on the body of the deceased Ramniwas which was responsible for causing the death of the deceased Ramniwas.

7.3 Learned State counsel further explained that the injuries in question were caused using a blunt object and that the injuries were attributed to an ‘Axe’ which is a sharp weapon and therefore, the said injuries were caused to the deceased by the reverse side of the Axe.

7.4 Learned State counsel also s