The appellate court upheld the trial court's decision on acquittals and convictions, emphasizing the presumption of innocence and stringent standards required for overturning acquittal.

JUDGEMENT

(PER : HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE KS JHAVERI)

1. These three appeals arise out of the common judgment and order dated 21-9-2010 passed by the learned 4th Additional Sessions Judge, Surat, in Sessions Case No.245 of 2006 and Sessions Case No.39 of 2007 whereby the original accused No.1 in Sessions Case No.245 of 2006 has been convicted and sentenced to undergo life imprisonment and to pay fine of Rs.10,000/-, in default, to undergo further SI for six months for the offence punishable under section 302 of IPC, RI for seven years and to pay fine of Rs.5,000/-, in default, to undergo further SI for three months for the offence punishable under section 307 of IPC, RI for three years and to pay fine of Rs.2,500/-, in default, to undergo further SI for one and half months for the offence punishable under section 333 of IPC, RI for six months and to pay fine of Rs.500/-, in default, to undergo further SI for fifteen days for the offence punishable under section 188 of IPC and RI for six months and to pay fine of Rs.500/-, in default, to undergo further SI for fifteen days for the offence punishable under section 135 of B.P.Act. However, the accused No.1 has been acquitted for the offence punishable under section 34 of IPC. All the sentences were ordered to run concurrently. Accused No.1 has been given benefit of set off for the period undergone in jail. Accused Nos.2 and 3 have been acquitted of the charges framed against them. Criminal Appeal No.1837 of 2010 has been filed by the original accused against his conviction, Criminal Appeal No.2040 of 2010 has been filed by the State for enhancement of sentence imposed on accused No.1 whereas Criminal Appeal No.2041 of 2010 has been filed by the State against acquittal of accused No.2.

2. Short facts of the prosecution case are that on 18-8-2006, present accused along with other accused were going to Surat in a tempo and when they reached near Vasai, as diesel was empty in the tempo, the accused bought train ticket to go to Surat. At about 2.30 a.m., as the train stopped at Udhana Railway Station, one person namely, Aris stayed in train while other accused got down from the train and were going towards Sanjaynagar from Udhana Railway yard. At that time, one Police Constable Rajendrakumar along with one rickshaw driver Jivan Patil, who were on patrolling duty, stopped the accused and caught accused-Arjunsingh while other accused were caught by rickshaw driver but all the accused caused injuries to the Police Constable and rickshaw driver and ran away. Therefore, complaint being C.R.No.I-38 of 2006 was filed against the accused. On the next day at about 3.30 a.m., all the accused gathered at the Railway track when Head Constable-Tikaram Ramkaran Meena and Police Constable-Mahendrasingh Narayansingh were patrolling there. They were stopped and inquired, at that time, the accused Nos.2 and 3 caught Police Constable-Mahendrasing and accused No.1 took out knife from the bag and inflicted 2-3 knife blows on the stomach of Mahendrasingh causing his instantaneous death. With the aforesaid allegations, a complaint was lodged at Udhana Police Station being C.R.No.I-131 of 2006 against the accused. Upon filing of the said complaint, the police started investigation and at the end of investigation filed charge sheet against the accused.

2.1 As the offence was triable by Court of Sessions, the learned Magistrate committed the case to the Court of Sessions, Surat.

The learned Sessions Judge framed charge against the accused.

The charge was read over and explained to the accused. The accused denied all the charges and pleaded to be tried. Hence, the prosecution was asked to prove the guilt against the accused.

2.2 To prove the guilt against the accused, prosecution examined as many as 37 witnesses including Arvindbhai Govanbhai