IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD R/CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 302 of 2013 FOR APPROVAL AND SIGNATURE:

HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE CHEEKATI MANAVENDRANATH ROY and HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE D. M. VYAS ==========================================================

Approved for Reporting Yes No ✔

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STATE OF GUJARAT Versus SHAMBHUBHAI NANUBHAI VAGHELA ==========================================================

Appearance:

MS. KRINA CALLA, ADDL. PUBLIC PROSECUTOR for the Appellant(s)

No. 1 RULE SERVED for the Opponent(s)/Respondent(s) No. 1 ==========================================================

CORAM:HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE CHEEKATI MANAVENDRANATH ROY and HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE D. M. VYAS Date : 24/09/2025

ORAL JUDGMENT

(PER : HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE CHEEKATI MANAVENDRANATH ROY)

1. The respondent is the sole accused in SC 102 of 2011 on the file of the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Bhavnagar. He was prosecuted for the offences punishable under Section 302 of IPC and 135 of Bombay Police Act. Eventually, he was acquitted of the said charges by the impugned judgment dated

23.11.2012.

2. Aggrieved by the said judgment of acquittal, the State has preferred the instant appeal assailing the legality and validity of the impugned judgment.

3. Facts of the prosecution case germane to dispose of the appeal may briefly be stated as follows:

4. The deceased Amrutben is the younger sister of the accused. She was a married woman. Her husband is a deaf and dumb person. She got one son and five daughters. The son and four daughters were married and one unmarried daughter has been living with her and her husband. She has been residing along with her husband and her unmarried daughter in their house.

5. The accused, who is her brother, got suspicion over her character. He was of the opinion that she was leading an immoral life and she got illegal contacts with several other persons and that she has been also making an effort to drag her unmarried daughter also into the said immoral life.

6. While so, on 30.04.2011 at about 7:30 pm in the night, the accused went to the house of the deceased. He found only the husband of the deceased in the house and he did not find the deceased in the house. So, out of suspicion that she was with somebody, he went to his house and picked-up a weapon called “Dhariya” and he went to backside of the house of the deceased to search for her. At that time, he has seen the deceased in the fields with some male person, whom he could not identify due to darkness. After seeing the accused, the said male person ran away. The accused got enraged after seeing her with some male person at the fields and attacked her with Dhariya and caused injuries to her on her leg. She sustained severe bleeding injuries on her leg in the said attack and she fell down. Thereafter, the accused called the 108 Ambulance from his mobile phone and after the ambulance arrived, he and the husband of the deceased lifted the injured person and they have taken the injured to the hospital in the ambulance. After she was taken to the hospital, the doctor who examined her declared that she died. The accused immediately came to his house and informed his parents about the death of the deceased.

7. On the intimation given by the hospital authorities regarding the death of the deceased, local police reached the hospital. At that time, they found the accused present at the hospital. The Police Inspector questioned the accused as to what happened. The accused narrated the entire incident and stated that when he found the deceased alone in the fields along with a male person, who ran away after seeing him, he got enraged and attacked the deceased with dhariya and caused injuries to her on her leg. The said statement of accused was recorded by the Police Inspector and obtained thumb impression of the accused. The said statement was registered as an FIR for the offences punishable under Section 302 of the IPC and 135 of the Bombay