Allahabad High Court: Samit Gopal, J. acquitted the appellant of the charges leveled against him of Section 307 of Penal Code, 1860 (‘IPC') wherein he was ordered to undergo three years and six months of rigorous imprisonment by the Additional District & Sessions Judge holding that the prosecution couldn’t establish the case beyond reasonable doubt.
As per the FIR, the police informer informed the police that one person standing at Jalalpur Mod and is about to commit an incident who is having narcotics and a country made pistol with him. The S.O. along with accompanying officials proceeded towards the said person and he all of sudden fired upon them to which they escaped and then they followed him after which near Jalalpur Mod he showed them his weapon but they arrested him on 03-03-2003 at about 23:40 hrs . They recovered a 12 bore country made pistol from his right hand and immediately upon opening its barrel found an empty cartridge. He further told them that he has diazepam tablets with him. He told them to take his search after which from his left pocket something wrapped in paper was found, on opening of which small tablets were recovered which were on counting found to be 300 tablets. The matter was investigated and a charge sheet was filed against the accused-appellant under Section 307 IPC.
Sub-Inspector was examined as PW-1 and the accused in his statement recorded under Section 313 Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (‘CrPC') stated that he committed a fault and pleaded guilty. The Trial Court thus after his confession concluded that the prosecution had succeeded its case beyond reasonable doubt and convicts him as stated above.
Amicus Curiae, Satya Prakash Rathor argued that the view as taken by the trial court is fully perverse and illegal. The prosecution has to stand on its own leg and prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. It was pointed out that there is no opinion of any expert or even evidence to the effect that the said weapon was sent for analysis to show that there was fire made by the accused-appellant. The corroboration in so far as the use of the said weapon is concerned, was missing. It was argued that even the prosecution has not come forward to show that the said weapon was sent to the ballistic expert for its testing which would go to corroborate its use in the present case. It was argued that merely by pleading guilty in the statement recorded under Section 313 CrPC, the accused cannot be held guilty.
The main issue for this Court to decide was whether after pleading guilty in the statement recorded under Section 313 CrPC and the prosecution proving the recovery memo and in presence of one witness and the deposing against the accused who was one of the team members of the arresting team, is sufficient for conviction or not.
The Court noted that the present case was a case of no injury. The Court noted that the prosecution is silent as to whether the said weapon was sent to the ballistic expert for examination which would corroborate its use at that point of time. Mere recovery of a weapon and one empty cartridge would not be sufficient to prove the use of the said weapon without any corroborating evidence.
Another question was that if accused pleads guilty in his statement under Section 313 CrPC then does the circumstance rest against him or not to which the Court answered that the law stands undisputed that the statement under Section 313 CrPC is not evidence. It is not a substantive piece of evidence. It can be used for appreciating evidence led by the prosecution to accept or reject it. However, it cannot be said to be a substitute for the prosecution evidence.
“It cannot be said that mere stating of being guilty in the statement under Section 313 CrPC will end the issue and would lead the route only to the guilt of the accused without prosecution establishing its case beyond reasonable doubt against him through cogent, reliable and admissible evidence.”
The Court was of the opinion that the accused-appellant deserves to be extended the benefit of doubt. The appeal was allowed.
[Gabbar Patel v. State, Jail Appeal No. – 5752 of 2007, decided on 11-08-2022]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
From Jail, Bhanu Pratap Singh A/C, Advocate, Counsel for the Appellant;
S.B. Maurya, Advocate, Counsel for the Respondent.
*Suchita Shukla, Editorial Assistant has reported this brief.
