{"id":1466,"date":"2024-02-08T13:25:07","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T07:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/?p=1466"},"modified":"2024-02-08T13:25:07","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T07:55:07","slug":"supreme-court-acquits-murder-accused-after-15-years-holding-that-conviction-cannot-be-based-on-suspicion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/supreme-court-acquits-murder-accused-after-15-years-holding-that-conviction-cannot-be-based-on-suspicion\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme court acquits murder accused after 15 years holding that conviction cannot be based on suspicion"},"content":{"rendered":"

RAJA NAYKAR\u00a0 \u00a0[<\/strong> APPELLANT(S)]\u00a0 Vs.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>STATE OF CHHATTISGARH \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>\u2026RESPONDENT(S)<\/p>\n

CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 902 OF 2023<\/p>\n

(2JB, B.R. GAVAI and SANDEEP MEHTA JJ., delivered by B.R. GAVAI, J.<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Facts:<\/u><\/strong> The present appeal challenges the judgement and order dated 22nd July, 2015, passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Chhattisgarh, Bilaspur in CRA No. 223 of 2012, thereby dismissing the appeal filed by the Appellant, namely, Raja Naykar (Accused No. 1) and confirming the judgment and order of conviction and sentence awarded to him by the Court of Additional Sessions Judge, Durg (Chhattisgarh) in Sessions Trial No. 14 of 2010 on 23rd November, 2011.<\/p>\n

Issue:<\/u><\/strong> Whether the appellant is guilty of the offence under present circumstances of the case?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Arguments on behalf of counsel for appellants:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Shri Sameer Shrivastava submitted that both the Trial Judge as well as the High Court have grossly erred in convicting the appellant. It is submitted that there is no evidence at all which establishes the guilt of the appellant beyond reasonable doubt. It is submitted that the finding of guilt of the appellant as recorded by the Trial Judge is based on conjectures and surmises and, therefore, not sustainable in law. Learned counsel further submitted that, from the evidence of the father and brother of the deceased, it would reveal that the dead body of the deceased has not been identified and the prosecution has failed to prove that the dead body found in the garbage was that of Shiva.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Arguments on behalf of counsel for respondents:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

On the contrary, Shri Sumeer Sodhi submitted that both the Trial Judge and the High Court, upon correct appreciation of evidence, have found the accused-appellant guilty of the charges levelled against him. It is submitted that, as per the FSL report, human blood was present on the dagger which was recovered at the instance of the present appellant. It is further submitted that the recoveries made on the basis of the Memorandum under Section 27 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 would establish the guilt of the accused appellant beyond reasonable doubt. He, therefore, submits that no interference would be warranted with the impugned judgment in the facts and circumstances of the present case.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Held:<\/u><\/strong> The court allowed the present appeal and held that, \u201cInsofar as the finding of the High Court that the appellant has failed to give any explanation in his statement under Section 313 Cr. P.C. is concerned, we find that the High Court has failed to appreciate the basic principle that it is only after the prosecution discharges its duty of proving the case beyond all reasonable doubt that the false explanation or non-explanation of the accused could be taken into consideration. In any case, as held by this Court in the case of Sharad Birdhichand Sarda<\/strong>, in a case based on circumstantial evidence, the nonexplanation or false explanation of the accused under Section 313 Cr.P.C. cannot be used as an additional link to complete the chain of circumstances. It can only be used to fortify the conclusion of guilt already arrived at on the basis of other proven circumstances.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RAJA NAYKAR\u00a0 \u00a0[ APPELLANT(S)]\u00a0 Vs.\u00a0 \u00a0STATE OF CHHATTISGARH \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u2026RESPONDENT(S) CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 902 OF 2023 (2JB, B.R. GAVAI and SANDEEP MEHTA JJ., delivered by B.R. GAVAI, J.)   Facts: The present appeal challenges the judgement and order dated 22nd July, 2015, passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Chhattisgarh, Bilaspur in CRA […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-judgement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1466"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1470,"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1466\/revisions\/1470"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}