This court allowed the appeal and acquitted the appellant under Section 152 of the Railway Act, 1989. The judgment set aside the conviction due to defective investigation, including failure to medically examine injured passengers, lack of motive assessment, and absence of public witnesses.
The order of conviction is set aside; the appellant is acquitted.
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Reserved
Court No. - 17
Case :- CRIMINAL APPEAL No. - 2438 of 2005
Appellant :- Devendra Respondent :- State Of U.P. Counsel for Appellant :- D.K. Srivastava,Hari Krishna Singh Counsel for Respondent :- Govt. Advocate
Hon'ble Suresh Kumar Gupta,J.
that they are not guilty.
"Maliciously hurting or attempting to hurt persons travelling by railway.— If any person unlawfully throws or causes to fall or strike at, against, into or upon any rolling stock forming part of a train, any wood, stone or other matter or thing with intent, or with knowledge that he is likely to endanger the safety of any person being in or upon such rolling stock or in or upon any other rolling stock forming part of the same train, he shall be punishable with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment for a term which may extend to ten years."
offence with which he stood charged. Neither conviction can be based on mere possibilities nor it is permissible for the court to speculate as to what had really happened. If both the parties come to court with untrue facts and conceal the real truth they have themselves to blame and they cannot expect the Court to arrive at any definite conclusion on the unreliable evidence produced either for or against either of the parties. In such a case the Court will certainly attempt to separate the grain from the chaff but only if it is possible to do so. In certain circumstances it may be found to be an impossible task. That is particularly so when the evidence of both the parties is thoroughly unreliable and cannot be accepted even in part with safety. In such a case it is not open to the Court to make out a third case, which is different from the case set up by both the parties. In such a case the Court can only say that the matter is doubtful in the extreme and it is not possible to arrive at any conclusion one way or the other. The result of such a finding may be that all the persons who stand as accused in the case may have to be given the benefit of doubt, which cannot be helped. The defective investigation and the conduct of the parties themselves are really responsible for that regrettable result. In such a case there can be no question of recording any conviction. This is what happened in this case. So, the appellant is liable to be acquitted.
Order Date : 13.2.2019
m.a.
1 issue framed by the court
Whether the prosecution successfully proved the ingredients of Section 152 of the Railway Act, 1989 given the defective investigation and lack of medical examination of injured passengers.
1 provisions across 1 enactments
Devendra
State Of U.P.
Suresh Kumar Gupta
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
