Content Provider | Supreme Court of India |
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e-ISSN | 30484839 |
Language | English |
Access Restriction | NDLI |
Subject Keyword | Sufficiency of proof Circumstantial evidence Murder Indian Penal Code No direct evidence |
Content Type | Text |
Resource Type | Law Judgement |
Jurisdiction | India |
Case Type | Appeal |
Court | Supreme Court of India |
Disposal Nature | Appeal Allowed |
Headnote | Circumstantial evidence—Murder—No direct evidence—~ Sufficiency of proof—Inference from absconding—Inference from non-recovery of jeep—Inference from presence of accused in house where murder was alleged to have taken place—Indian Penal Code, ss. 176, 201, 302.The appellants were prosecuted and committed to the Sessions for trial Raghav was convicted and sentenced to death under s. 302, I.P.C. He and Jai Devi, his mother, Ramanuj Das, Mohan Singh and Udham Singh were convicted under section 201 IPC. Ramanuj Das was also convicted under section 176 IPC. Their appeals were dismissed by, the High Court. They came to this court by special leave. The appeal of Raghav, Mohan Singh and Udham Singh was, allowed by majority, that of Ramanuj Das and Jai Devi for offence under s. 201, IPC was allowed unanimously and appeal of Ramanuj Das for offence under s. 176 IPC was allowed by a majority.Held (Kapur and Hidayatullaha, JJ dissenting) that there was no direct evidence about Raghav committing the: murder of Kamla and Madhusudan. There was no direct evidence about his carrying away their dead bodies in the jeep. There was no direct evidence about Ramanuj Das or any other accused being a party to the removal of the dead bodies from the house, The entire case was based on circumstantial ‘evidence. The circumstances proved against Raghav were not sufficient to support the finding that he had committed the murder. The mere absconding may lend weight to the other evidence establishing the guilt of the accused but by itself that is hardly any evidence of guilt. It was too much to i conclude from the non-recovery of the jeep that if it had been recovered, it would have afforded evidence of existence of f human blood-stain and of its having been used to remove evidence of murder. That circumstance had no evidentiary value. There was no evidence about the part Ramanuj Das or Jai Devi played in the removal of the dead bodies. The " fact that they were in the house and could have possibly «known of the removal of the dead bodies, of that was a fact would not by itself establish that they assisted in the removal of the bodies. The conviction of the appellant was not justified on the material on record. Per Kapur and Hidayatullah JJ. The strained relations between husband and wife, the motive to escape the giving of money and land as maintenance to the wife or child, suddenly leaving the village at night with two others and almost simultaneous disappearance of Kamla and her son, no search for her and absolute callousness on the part of Raghav, giving of false explanation later on and his absconding were circumstances from which the Courts below were justified in concluding that Kamla and her son were murdered and Raghav had a predominant motive to commit the murder, The inculpatory facts proved against Raghav were not capable of explanation on any other hypothesis except his guilt. The Courts below had applied correct principles and found Raghav guilty and there was no reason to disagree with their conclusions, The non-production of the jeep was a circumstance against Raghav which the Courts below were entitled to take into consideration. Articles like jeeps do not just disappear in thin air and when they do disappear and cannot be traced and when the allegation is that they have been used for carrying away the dead bodies, their non- production or their not being found is a circumstance which a Court can take into consideration in determining the guilt of an accused person. No case under section 201 of the Indian Penal Code had been made out against Ramanuj Das and Jai Devi. What section 201 requires is causing any evidence of the commission of the offence to disappear or giving any information respecting the offence which a person knows or believes to be false. It was not proved that the two appellants had caused any evidence to disappear. There may be a strong suspicion that if from the house dead bodies were removed or blood was washed, the persons placed in the position of the two appellants must have had a hand in it, but still that remains a suspicion, although a strong suspicion. There mere absconding would not fill the gap or supply the evidence which was necessary to prove the ingredients of section 201. |
Judge | Hon'ble Mr. Justice J. L. Kapur Hon'ble Mr. Justice Raghubar Dayal |
Neutral Citation | 1962 INSC 204 |
Petitioner | Raghav Prapanna Tripathi |
Respondent | The State Of Uttar Pradesh |
SCR | [1963] 3 S.C.R. 239 |
Judgement Date | 1962-05-04 |
Case Number | 72 |
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