The court ruled that a conviction cannot stand solely on conjectures; the prosecution must conclusively prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.

HON'BLE SHRI JUSTICE AVANINDRA KUMAR SINGH th ON THE 26 OF AUGUST, 2025 CRIMINAL APPEAL No. 11924 of 2024 AMIT VERMA Versus THE STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH Appearance:

Shri Prakash Upadhyay - Senior Advocate assisted by Shri Ramnath Dwivedi - Advocate for the appellant.

Shri Manas Mani Verma - Government Advocate for the State of M.P.

J U D G M E N T Per: Justice Vivek Agarwal At the outset, learned counsel for the appellant prays for withdrawal of I.A. No.28109 of 2024, an application under Section 389 of Cr.P.C . for suspension of remaining jail sentence and grant of bail.

Accordingly, I.A. No.28109 of 2024 is dismissed as withdrawn.

With the consent of learned counsel for the parties, this appeal is taken up for final disposal at motion stage.

The appellant is aggrieved of judgment dated 04.10.2024 passed by learned Fourth Additional Sessions Judge, Rewa, (M.P.) in S.T. No.140 of Signature Not Verified Signed by: BASANT KUMAR

2023, whereby the appellant has been convicted and sentenced as under :-

2. Shri Prakash Upadhyay, learned Senior Counsel assisted by Shri Ramnath Dwivedi, learned counsel for the appellant submits that the appellant has been acquitted from the charges under Section 304-B and Section 498-A of IPC .

3. It is submitted that the conviction is not based on any evidence available on record but is a figment of imagination of the learned trial Judge as can be seen from Paragraph-36 onwards where learned trial Judge has drawn a presumption that since a tree is shown near the wall of the room and villagers are normally trained and experienced of climbing on tree, appellant could climb a tree and could have run away as walls on the East and the West of his house are connected with other houses. It is submitted that this fact of claiming on a tree and running away is proved by the prosecution through Ex.P-30 and Ex.P-27, which reflects that roof of the house of the appellant is low and he could have climbed on a table shown in Ex.P-21 to reach the roof and escape.

4. It is submitted that a motive was attributed to the appellant that he was having relationship with some other girl as a result of which he had done away with his wife and a minor child. Reading from the evidence of , Signature Not Verified Signed by: BASANT KUMAR Dr. K.S. Dwivedi, (PW-8) S.D.O.P., Mangawa, District Rewa, it is pointed out that in Para-11, Dr. Dwivedi has stated that he had not received any material during investigation to show that the appellant had any relationship with any girl nor any witness deposed in regard to such fact. It is also pointed out that Smt. Durga Bari (PW-2), mother of the victim accepted in Para-6 that after marriage for about seven years, her daughter was living happily in her matrimonial home. She had never made any complaint to her against her in-laws or her husband. She further admits that she had never seen her son-in-law with any other girl nor she has any documentary evidence in this behalf.

5. It is evident that in examination-in-chief, suggestion is that Anjali -

deceased on account of demand of dowry had put herself on fire. Similar statements have been given by PW-1, father of the deceased but they have not been substantiated as is evident from Para-6 of cross-examination of PW-2. Even PW-1 in para-11 admits that he had never enquired about any illicit relationship of the appellant with anybody. He further admitted that he had not made any complaint in regard to the feedback which was received by him through his daughter-Anjali.

6. Thus, it is submitted that when Dr. Mordhwaj Patel (PW-7) admits that injuries found on the body of the deceased could have been accidental and Rukmani Pandey (PW-6),