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2005 Supreme(Mad) 1908
High Court of Judicature at Madras
THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE P.K. MISRA & THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE AR. RAMALINGAM
Balaprasanna S/o.Sivakumar - Appellant
Versus
Inspector of Police - Respondents
Crl.A. No.202 of 2005
Decided On : 23 December 2005
The need for complete and conclusive evidence in cases based on circumstantial evidence, and the requirement for all circumstances to be consistent only with the guilt of the accused.
Headnote:
Section 302, I.P.C. - Conviction - Circumstantial evidence - Recovery of incriminating materials - Motive - Voluntariness of confession - Chain of circumstances - Acquittal
Fact of the Case:
The appellant was convicted under Section 302, I.P.C. and sentenced to imprisonment for life and under Section 392 r/w. 397, I.P.C. and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. The prosecution relied on circumstantial evidence, confessional statements of the accused leading to recovery of various incriminating materials, and alleged motive of the accused to urgently obtain money to increase his marks in mathematics.
Finding of the Court:
The court found serious doubts about the investigation process, voluntariness of the confessional statements, and the chain of circumstances. It emphasized that all links in the chain of circumstances must be complete and proved through cogent evidence, and that the benefit of any reasonable doubt would go to the accused.
Issues: Voluntariness of confession, reliability of circumstantial evidence, motive of the accused, and the completeness of the chain of circumstances.
Ratio Decidendi: The court emphasized the need for complete and conclusive evidence in cases based on circumstantial evidence, and the requirement for all circumstances to be consistent only with the guilt of the accused. It also highlighted the importance of establishing the voluntariness of confessional statements and the need to rule out any other reasonable hypothesis except the guilt of the accused.
Final Decision: The appeal was allowed, the conviction and sentence were set aside, and the accused was acquitted of all charges.
P.K. Misra, J.
1. The appellant has been convicted under Section 302, I.P.C. and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs.10,000 in default to undergo, R.I. for one year. He was also convicted under Section 392 r/w. 397, I.P.C. and sentenced to undergo R.I. for 10 years and to pay a fine of Rs.10,000 in default to undergo R.I. for one year. Both the sentences have been ordered to run consecutively.
2. The prosecution case is as follows:
The deceased is one Mayurani, a Srilankan student, who was residing in the first floor of the house belonging to one Solaimalai (P.W.1). The accused is also a Srilankan student studying in a different college, but staying in the second floor of the same premises. The occurrence allegedly took place in the afternoon of 22.4.2003. The First Information Report was lodged by P.W.1 on 24.4.2003 at about 9.30 A.M. It was indicated in the First Information Report that on 24.4.2003 at 9.00 A.M., while the informant had gone to perform pooja in the first floor of the house, he smelt foul odour in the last room of the first floor and found blood seeping through the front door. On opening the window he noticed that Mayurani was lying in a pool of blood with her face covered with a bag. On the basis of the aforesaid F.I.R., investigation was taken up initially by P.W.40. Subsequently on the basis of the order of the High Court, such investigation was completed by P.W.42.
2.1. The accused is stated to have been arrested on suspicion on 26.4.2003. On the basis of the statement of the accused, prosecution recovered many materials including a knife and a log allegedly used for killing. Initially P.W.40 suspected the role of P.W.1, his wife P.W.2, P.W.3, from whose house certain incriminating materials were recovered allegedly on the basis of statement of the accused as well as P.W.4, who was working as a cleaner in the vehicle of P.W.1. Subsequently, however, P.W.42, who took over investigation from P.W.40 filed charge-sheet only against the present appellant on the footing that P.Ws.1 to 4 had no role to play in the crime.
3. The prosecution relied upon only circumstantial evidence, namely, confessional statements of the accused leading to recovery of various incriminating materials. Ex.P-6 is the statement leading to recovery of Travel bags (M.Os.2 & 3), knife (M.O.5), wooden log (M.O.28) rubber gloves (M.O.29 series) cotton rope with human hair (M.O.30 series), two sponges soaked with blood (M.O.31 series), bloodstained blue colour jean pant (M.O.32), bloodstained white banian (M.O.33), colour banian (M.O.34), bloodstained grey colour pant (M.O.35), bloodstained pillow (M.O.36), plastic bucket (M.O.37) from the house of P.W.3. Ex.P-8 is the statement leading to recovery of computer and its accessories (M.Os.6 to 17) from the house of P.W.15, a classmate of the accused. Ex.P-10 is the statement relating to jewelleries, ultimately leading to recovery of gold ingots (M.O. 18 series) from the house of P.W.19 on the basis of other connecting statements of P.W.17 and P.W.18. These three statements, Exs.P-6, P-8 and P-10 dated 26.4.2003, were made before P.W.40 in the presence of P.W.22 and C.W.1. The other confessional statement Ex.P-12 dated 22.9.2003 made before P.W.42 and Subbiah and P.W.24, led to recovery of "M" dollar (M.O.38) and key with key chain (M.O.39) from the toilet in the room of the accused. The prosecution has also relied upon the alleged motive to the effect that the accused urgently wanted money with a view to increase his marks in mathematics and, therefore, the accused had stolen articles belonging to the deceased.
4. The Trial Court has relied upon the following circumstances to hold that the appellant is guilty of the offences under Sections 302, 392 r/w. 397, IPC:
(a) The death is homicidal.
(b) The accused was in need of money to chase mathematics paper and for the aforesaid purpose he has killed the deceased to take away the valuable articles like computer a
