Criminal Application arising from an acquittal in a murder case based on circumstantial evidence. The High Court rejected the State's application for leave to appeal, holding that the prosecution failed to establish motive or a complete chain of circumstances.
Application seeking leave to file appeal against acquittal rejected.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
1 CRAPPLN762-15.odt
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD
CRIMINAL APPLICATION NO.762 OF 2015
The State of Maharashtra,
through Police Station Officer,
Police Station, Ashti,
Tq. Ashti, Dist. Beed..Applicant
Vs.
1. Ankush s/o. Bhimrao Jagtap,
Age 35 years, Occ. Driver,
r/o. Kapsi, Tq. Ashti,
Dist. Beed
2. Mahadev s/o. Baburao Garje,
Age 35 years, Occ. and
r/o. As above
3. Jalindar s/o. Vitthal Golhar,
Age 32 years, Occ. and
r/o. As above
4. Dadasaheb @ Mhatardeo s/o.
Uttam Golhar, Age 29 years,
Occu. Agri., r/o. Bavi,
Tq. Ashti, Dist. Beed..Respondents
Mr.S.W.Mundhe, Advocate for appellant
Mr.T.M.Tandale, Advocate for respondent nos.1, 3
and 4
CORAM : S.S. SHINDE AND
SANGITRAO S. PATIL, JJ.
RESERVED ON : OCTOBER 18, 2016
PRONOUNCED ON : OCTOBER, 2016
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ORDER (PER SANGITRAO S. PATIL, J) :
Heard the learned A.P.P. for the
applicant. Perused the statements of the witnesses
and the judgment in question, whereby the
respondents have been acquitted of the offence
punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34
of the Indian Penal Code (“I.P.C.”, for short)
2.Admittedly, the case is depending on
circumstantial evidence. The only circumstance
sought to be relied on by the applicant/
prosecution is about seeing the deceased Pandit
Shinde lastly in the company of the respondents.
3.The deceased Pandit was working as a
driver with a transport company. In the fateful
night of the incident, he was driving a truck
loaded with the goods from Essar Steel Company at
Sanaswadi, District Pune to Latur. He had left the
said Company with the loaded truck at about 10:00
p.m. on 28.12.2012. He was supposed to reach Latur
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on the next day. However, his whereabouts remained
unknown till 31.12.2012. He was not responding to
the phone calls as well. The truck driven by the
deceased Pandit was noticed by one Deepak
Sonawane, resident of Sheri (Bk), near Sheri (Bk)
- junction on Nagar to Jamkhed road. The doors of
cabin of the truck, which was bearing registration
number MH-14-CP-6977, were closed. After opening
the door of the cabin, the dead body of the
deceased Pandit, which was almost decomposed, was
found lying therein. Therefore, on the report of
the said Deepak Sonawane, crime came to be
registered for the offence punishable under
Section 302 of the I.P.C.
4.The evidence on record does not show that
either of the respondents was with the deceased
Pandit when he was driving the above-numbered
truck. As such, the theory of last seen, set up
by the prosecution was not acceptable and
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accordingly, the trial Court has rightly not
accepted it.
5.A spanner and iron tommy are stated to
have been recovered from the cabin of the truck,
which were stained with blood. However, nothing
was noticed thereon to connect any of the
respondents with those articles. The clothes of
the respondents also came to be seized. However,
there is no report of the Chemical Analyst to show
that the said clothes were stained with the same
blood group which was that of the deceased Pandit.
6.The cell phones alleged to be in
possession of respondent nos.1 and 4 would not be
helpful to the prosecution to connect them with
the incident in question for the simple reason
that the registered subscribers thereof were some
different persons. The prosecution did not examine
those subscribers to establish that they had
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handed over their cell phones to respondent nos.1
and 4.
7.The goods loaded in the above-numbered
truck were not found to have been stolen away.
Likewise, nothing was found to have been stolen
from the cabin of the truck. As such, murder of
the deceased cannot be said to have been committed
with a view to commit theft of either the truck or
anything that was loaded therein. The prosecution
has totally failed to establish the motive on the
part of the respondents, which would have prompted
them to commit murder of Pandit.
8.The prosecution has failed to establish
the complete chain of circumstances to connect the
respondents with the incident of death of Pandit.
The learned trial Judge has properly and correctly
appreciated the facts of the case as well as the
evidence on record and rendered the findings of
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acquittal of the respondents of the offence
punishable under Section 302 of the I.P.C. The
judgment sought to be challenged is supported by
the evidence on record.
9.In the circumstances, we are not inclined
to allow this application seeking leave for filing
appeal against acquittal. The application seeking
leave to file appeal is, therefore, rejected. It
is, accordingly, disposed of.
[SANGITRAO S. PATIL, J.][S.S. SHINDE, J.]
kbp
2 issues framed by the court
Whether the High Court should grant leave to the State to file a special leave petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court against the acquittal of the respondent accused of murder.
Whether the prosecution had established a complete chain of circumstances to connect the respondents with the killing of the deceased.
1 provisions across 1 enactments
The State of Maharashtra
Ankush s/o. Bhimrao Jagtap
Mahadev s/o. Baburao Garje
Jalindar s/o. Vitthal Golhar
Dadasaheb @ Mhatardeo s/o. Uttam Golhar
S.S. Shinde
Sangitrao S. Patil
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court