NDLI: State of Himachal Pradesh Vs. Raj Kumar

Content Provider	Supreme Court of India
e-ISSN	30484839
Language	English
Access Restriction	NDLI
Subject Keyword	Criminal law – Last seen theory 1860 Penal Code Circumstantial evidence
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 Referred Case 2 Referred Case 3 Referred Case 4
Case Type	Appeal
Court	Supreme Court of India
Disposal Nature	Appeal Allowed
Headnote	Penal Code, 1860 – ss.302, 201 r/w.34 – Case based on circumstantial evidence – Deceased was residing with PW1 (son), PW2 (daughter) and accused-respondent (brother-in-law) – On the fateful night, PW1 heard the cries of deceased on being beaten by respondent who then took her towards the house of another accused – Later, dead body of deceased was found hanging from a tree – Trial court convicted the respondent – Appeal by accused allowed by High Court on the ground that PW-1 had made improvements in his deposition and hence, was not a reliable witness – Held: Prosecution case is based on circumstantial evidence – In the present case, the circumstances relied upon by the prosecution are proved by cogent and reliable evidence cumulatively forming a complete chain pointing out that the murder was committed by the respondent and none-else – Further, evidence of PW-1 was cogent, natural and consistent with the prosecution case – High Court entertained fanciful doubts and rejected the credible evidence of PW-1 on ground of alleged improvements – Reasonings of the High Court for acquitting the respondent are unsustainable – Conviction of respondent by trial court is affirmed.Evidence Act, 1872 – s.106 – Burden of proving fact especially within knowledge – Deceased was living with her 2 children and accused-respondent (brother-in-law) – On the fateful day, the respondent had beaten the deceased before taking her towards the house of another accused – Later, dead body of deceased was found hanging from a tree – Held: In view of s.106, burden was cast upon the respondent, being the inmate of the house to give a cogent explanation as to how the deceased died – No reasonable explanation was forthcoming from him as to why he had neither lodged the complaint nor informed the police about the missing of deceased – Accused not throwing light on the fact which was within his knowledge, his failure to offer any explanation is a strong militating circumstance against him.Criminal law – Last seen theory – Deceased was last seen alive in the company of accused – Accused did not satisfactorily explain the missing of deceased – Held: This is a strong militating circumstance against the accused – Deceased who was residing in the same house with the accused and was last seen alive with the accused, it was for him to explain how the deceased died.
Judge	Hon'ble Ms. Justice R. Banumathi
Neutral Citation	2018 INSC 9
Petitioner	State Of Himachal Pradesh
Respondent	Raj Kumar
SCR	[2018] 1 S.C.R. 102
Judgement Date	2018-01-08
Case Number	31

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
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