Supreme Court of India (A.K. Sikri and R.K. Agrawal, JJ.; judgment delivered by R.K. Agrawal, J.), August 03, 2017 - Criminal Appeal No. 1962 of 2011 with Crl. A. No. 604 of 2012 - Penal Code, 1860, ss. 143, 147, 148, 302 r/w 149 and 326 r/w 149 - Murder of Ravindra Kale on 31.01.2008 by twelve persons armed with swords and iron pipes owing to a longstanding dispute; concurrent convictions by the Court of Sessions, Ahmednagar (09.04.2009) and the High Court of Bombay, Aurangabad Bench (common judgment dated 11.01.2011). Held, dismissing the appeals: (i) evidence of a medical person is merely an opinion lending corroboration to direct evidence; where the eyewitness account is credible and trustworthy, medical opinion pointing to alternative possibilities is not conclusive; the post-mortem by PW-10 showed death by a sharp-edged weapon, possibly a sword, corroborating PW-5 and PW-8 that the appellants used swords and iron pipes; (ii) the absence of food particles in the stomach/intestine did not falsify PW-8's statement that he ate 'Bhel' with the deceased just before the incident - stomach contents are not a safe or determinative guide to the time of death, digestion varying between persons and even in the same person at different times; where there is positive direct evidence of the time of occurrence, the court cannot speculate from the presence of faecal matter in the intestine; the state of food in the stomach is a factor but not decisive by itself; (iii) medical opinion is admissible like all other evidence and is not sacrosanct; (iv) the testimonies of PW-5, PW-8 and PW-12 are trustworthy and mutually corroborative; minor contradictions are immaterial, and the High Court erred in discarding PW-5 and PW-12. Conviction and sentence upheld; appeals dismissed. Relied on: Malay Kumar Ganguly v. Sukumar Mukherjee, AIR 2010 SC 1162 : (2009) 13 SCR 1; Modi's book on Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology.
