Failure to establish a chain of circumstantial evidence requires acquittal in criminal cases.

1. By this appeal, the appellant - accused no.1, has challenged the judgment and order dated 22.01.2016 passed by the Sessions Court, Chandrapur, in Special Case No.70 of 2014, whereby the appellant alone has been convicted and sentenced under S.302, S.201, S.120 - B and 203 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), while the other three accused persons have been acquitted. The appellant has been sentenced to suffer life imprisonment for offence under S.302 of the IPC and shorter sentences of imprisonment for the other offences, with the substantive sentences running concurrently. As there is no eyewitness to the incident, this is a case of circumstantial evidence.

2. The facts of the present case can be summarized as follows: -

(A) The appellant and his deceased wife Harsha were married in the year 2001. It was claimed by her father i.e. PW1 Patruji Bhoyar that the appellant and his wife were having disturbed marital life despite having two sons and they used to frequently quarrel on the alleged illicit relation of appellant with one Pushpa. It appears from the material on record that the appellant and his wife had left from Mokhala for Chandrapur on 05.01.2014 to visit a doctor leaving behind their two sons at the house of PW1 Patruji Bhoyar at Mokhala. The appellant was riding motorcycle while deceased Harsha was pillion rider. At about 12 in the noon, wife of the appellant had called her father i.e. PW1 Patruji Bhoyar stating that she along with the appellant had reached the doctor at Chandrapur, who had advised her to get admitted in the hospital, but, as she had not brought any clothes, she was coming back.

(B) Thereafter, the wife of the appellant again called her father PW1 at about 4 p.m. and stated that they were leaving Chandrapur. The appellant has also stated in his oral report dated 05.01.2014 that he and his wife were on their way back from Chandrapur on 05.01.2014 and to that extent the events narrated by PW1 Patruji Bhoyar and the appellant are similar. It has also come in the oral report of the appellant that when they were on their way back on the road, at about 10.30 p.m. a truck with bright headlights came from the front due to which he applied brakes and at that very moment a truck was coming from behind, due to which he panicked and the motorcycle slipped and fell. As a result, both he and his wife were thrown on the road and the truck coming from behind struck his wife Harsha on the head, due to which she suffered serious injuries and died on the spot.

(C) It is claimed by PW1 Patruji Bhoyar that when their daughter Harsha and the appellant did not return till about 8 p.m. on 05.01.2014, he tried their mobile numbers. The mobile phone of Harsha was switched off and that of the appellant was engaged. It is further claimed by PW1 that, he and his son PW4 Ujwal Bhoyar went in search on the road and near a field at Chakpiranji, they saw the appellant showing the torch of his mobile where the motorcycle was lying and Harsha was lying dead wrapped in a blanket.

(D) The Police was informed and the appellant as well as deceased Harsha were taken to the hospital at Saoli where the appellant was treated for injury on his leg while the dead body of Harsha was kept in the mortuary.

(E) On the basis of the oral report of the appellant recorded at about 11.30 p.m. on 05.01.2014, First Information Report (FIR) No. 1 of 2014 was registered in Police Station Saoli, district Chandrapur for offences under S.279, S.336 and S.304 - A of the IPC against unknown persons. On 06.01.2014 post mortem on the body of