Varun Chaudhary v. State of Rajasthan
PENAL CODE, 1860: s.302 (read with s.34 for A-2/A-3) – Murder of an Income Tax Officer
Case brief
What is this about?
Supreme Court of India, Criminal Appeal No. 705 of 2008 (with Crl. Appeal No. 561 of 2008), decided 29 October 2010, coram Dr. Mukundakam Sharma and Anil R. Dave, JJ., judgment by Anil R. Dave, J. Acquittal of Varun Chaudhary (A-1) and Sudhir @ Bunty (A-2) convicted under s.302 IPC (A-2/A-3 also s.34) for the 22.8.2000 murder of Income Tax Officer Bhawani Singh near Ricoh circle, Ajmer. Key themes: circumstantial evidence and complete-chain requirement; no eyewitness; futility/absence of test identification parade; identification of motor cycle by a single registration digit '9'; unproved recovery panchnama (signed in police station; witness absent); knife never produced in court or shown to accused (cf. s.313 CrPC point); tyre marks never lifted or compared, FSL samples unsealed; absence of motive (scrap-dealer threat theory inapplicable); reliance on G. Parashwanath v. State of Karnataka (2010) 8 SCC 593 and C. Chenga Reddy v. State of A.P. (1996) 10 SCC 193; references to Abdulwahab Abdulmajid Baloch, Mohd. Abdul Hafeez AIR 1983 SC 367, Surinder Pal Jain 1993 Crl.L.J. 1871, Tarseem Kumar. Outcome: appeals allowed, convictions quashed and set aside, accused released; fine of Rs. 1,000/- (default 3 months SI) stood quashed with the convictions.