Delhi High Court: A Division Bench comprising of Vipin Sanghi and I.S. Mehta, JJ. allowed an appeal filed against the judgment and order of the trial court whereby the appellant was convicted for the offence punishable under Section 302 IPC.
The appellant was convicted for murder of his co-brother (sadoo). It was alleged that firstly, the deceased was last seen with the appellant. Secondly, the knife used in the commission of crime was recovered on disclosure made by the appellant. Thirdly, the appellant went missing after the death of the deceased and his mobile phone was also switched off. Fourthly, police claimed to recover clothes of the accused with involvement of an independent witness. Lastly, the motive behind the commission of murder was said to be that the appellant was suspicious of an illicit relationship between his wife and the deceased. The trial court convicted the appellant under Section 302, against which the appellant had filed the instant appeal.
The High Court perused the record and considered the submissions made by the parties. The Court was of the view that there were serious gaping holes in the prosecution story. The matter was dealt in a point-wise manner. Firstly, the last seen theory was unacceptable because the there was a time gap of over five hours between last seen and the death of the deceased. Moreover, undigested food was found in the intestines of the deceased in the post-mortem report; there was no record as to when, where and with whom the deceased had his last meal. Secondly, the blood on the knife which was recovered from the bushes did not match with the blood group of the deceased. Thirdly, the fact that the appellant went missing and switching off his mobile phone was the only fact that raised suspicion of his involvement in the crime. Fourthly, the independent witness involved in recovery of the clothes allegedly of the appellant did not support the recovery during his examination and turned hostile. Lastly, as to the motive for murder, the Court observed that in Indian culture, the relationship between a sister-in-law and brother-in-law is known to evoke playful and fun-filled conversations. Even the appellant would have been aware of the fact. Even if he did not appreciate such interactions between his wife and the deceased, there was no immediate provocation prior to the murder to trigger such an act. In light of the above, the Court held that the appellant deserved the benefit of doubt. Accordingly, the appeal was allowed, the judgment impugned was set aside and the appellant was acquitted of the charges against him. [Dinesh Dass v. State (NCT of Delhi),2018 SCC OnLine Del 10970, dated 29-08-2018]
