An appellate court will not interfere with an acquittal when the prosecution's case suffers from material contradictions between eyewitness testimony and medical evidence, and where pre-existing enmity requires cautious scrutiny of evidence, ensuring that any reasonable doubt resulting from such analysis benefits the accused.

Judgment

1. The instant Criminal Appeal has been preferred by the Appellant-complainant (Jitendra singh) under Section 372 of the Code of Criminal Procedure against the judgment dated 27.03.2025 passed by learned Additional Sessions Judge No. 2, Anupgarh, District Sri Ganganagar (hereinafter referred to as “the learned trial court”) in Sessions Case No.14/2021 (CIS No. 15/2019), titled as State vs. Jagjeet Singh & Others, whereby the learned trial court has convicted the accused Jagjeet Singh and Manjeet Singh @ Mangal Singh, but acquitted the present accused-respondents namely 1. Sundra Bai, 2. Sukha Devi and 3. Karmjeet kaur @ Parvinder kaur from the charges under Sections 147, 148, 307/149, 323/149 and 302/149 of the Indian Penal Code.

2. As per the prosecution case, on 27.04.2019, a written report was submitted by the complainant, Jitendra Singh before the Station House Officer, Police Station Anupgarh, stating inter alia that agricultural land measuring 8.25 bighas situated in Chak 12 P, held under a Muchalka khata, stands recorded in the names of his father, Jarnail Singh, his uncle Gurnam Singh and his elder uncle Roop Singh (since deceased), and that they have been in continuous possession thereof for the last about 28 years. It was alleged that Manjeet Singh and Jagjeet Singh, sons of late Roop Singh, who reside in a Dhani adjacent to that of the complainant, were attempting to forcibly take possession of the said land and their Dhani, and had been persistently harassing them and picking up quarrels in respect of a house constructed by the complainant on his share about 20 years ago. It was further stated that on the said date at about 10:00 AM, upon hearing noise from the room where fodder (tudi) was stored, his father Jarnail Singh came out and saw that Jagjeet Singh was armed with a sharp-edged kapa, Manjeet Singh was carrying a kasiya, and Sundrabai, Sukhbai and Karmjeet kaur @ Parvinder kaur (wife of Manjeet Singh) were armed with iron rods and lathis, and all of them were attempting to break open the lock of the fodder room(tudi). When Jarnail Singh objected, Manjeet Singh and Jagjeet Singh allegedly attacked him with their respective weapons with an intention to cause his death, while the other co-accused also assaulted him with iron rods and lathis. On hearing the commotion, Jaswinder Kaur, wife of the complainant, reached at the place of occurrence, whereupon she too was assaulted and knocked to the ground. The complainant, upon coming out, saw the accused persons assaulting Jarnail Singh and Jaswinder Kaur and when he intervened to rescue them, he was also attacked by the accused persons. It was alleged that Jarnail Singh and Jaswinder Kaur sustained grievous injuries, particularly on the head, and became unconscious. Believing them to be dead, the accused persons fled from the place of occurrence. Thereafter, the complainant called the 108 ambulance service and shifted the injured to the Government Hospital, from where, owing to the critical condition of Jarnail Singh, he was referred to Sri Ganganagar. He was taken to the Government Hospital, Sri Ganganagar and thereafter admitted to a private hospital, where, at about 4:30 PM, information was received that Jarnail Singh had succumbed to his injuries during the course of treatment. It was thus alleged that the accused persons, forming an unlawful assembly and acting in furtherance of their common object, trespassed into their premises and inflicted life-threatening injuries with sharp-edged weapons, resulting into the death of Jarnail Singh.

3. On the basis of the written report, FIR No.220/2019 came to be registered for the offences under Sections 302, 307, 323, 147, 148 and 149 of the Indian Penal Code, and investigation was commenced.

4. Upon completion of investigation, a charge-sheet was filed against all the accused persons for the offences under Sections 302, 307, 323, 147, 148 and 149 of the Indian Penal Code before the Court of the