NDLI: Chunthuram Vs. State of Chhattisgarh

Content Provider	Supreme Court of India
e-ISSN	30484839
Language	English
Access Restriction	NDLI
Subject Keyword	criminal Penal Code
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Law Judgement
Jurisdiction	India
Act(s) Referred	Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860)
Case(s) Referred	Referred Case 0 Referred Case 1
Case Type	Appeal
Court	Supreme Court of India
Disposal Nature	Appeal Allowed
Headnote	Penal Code, 1860 – ss. 302/34 – Murder – The prosecutioncase is that when the victim-deceased was returning from market tovillage, the appellant and the co-accused assaulted him with axeand stick, and the victim died on the spot – The trial Court reacheda guilty verdict and sentenced both accused accordingly – However,the High Court referred to the testimony of PW-4 who admitted thathe could not recognize the second person at the spot and couldidentify only the appellant, based on this, the co-accused wasacquitted – On appeal, held: The alleged weapons of assaultrecovered were never linked to the crime – The doctor in his cross-examination admitted that bloodstains or other marks on the exhibitscould not be seen – The weapons were sent for chemical examinationand the trial Court referred to the report of chemical analyst toconclude the presence of blood on the exhibits but the purportedchemical analyst report is not found available with the case recordsand there is no mention of such report in the High Court judgmentas well – Thus, the prosecution did not produce any chemical analystreport – Other relevant forensic evidence like seized shirt of the co-accused was withheld by the prosecution – When such vital forensicevidence is kept away, an adverse inference will have to be drawnagainst the prosecution – Another infirmity was the presence of thepolice during the Test Identification Parade – Also, the Pahchanpatra of TIP mentions three lungis were presented, however, therelated witness was shown only one lungi for identification as perown statement of witness, PW-3 – Such infirmities would render TIPunworthy of acceptance – Further, there were inconsistencies inthe statement of PW-3, he stated that lungi was found 10-12 stepsfrom the dead body, however, the spot report noted that lungi wasfound at a distance of 150 feet from the body – As far as PW-4 isconcerned, he admitted to having poor eye sight and was incapableof seeing things beyond one or two feet – He also admitted that itwas dark and cloudy as it was raining on that day – Besides, heheard victim cry for help from 200 yards and whereas PW-2 whowas 54 yards away from the place of incident, never heard anything– This would render testimony of PW-4 unreliable – This was coupledwith the unnatural conduct of PW-4, as witness here knew the victimand his family – PW-4 allegedly saw the incident and yet remainedquiet about the incident – His reaction and conduct does not matchupto ordinary reaction of a person who knew the deceased and hisfamily – Therefore, the infirmities in the prosecution evidence hasmade out a case for interference – Consequently, the judgments ofthe trial Court and the High Court are set aside.
Judge	Hon'ble Mr. Justice Hrishikesh Roy
Neutral Citation	2020 INSC 616
Petitioner	Chunthuram
Respondent	State Of Chhattisgarh
SCR	[2020] 8 S.C.R. 1071
Judgement Date	2020-10-29
Case Number	1392

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