STATE OF GUJARAT Vs. GOVINDBHAI KALABHAI DANGAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) CRIMINAL Misc. Application has been filed by the State seeking leave to appeal against the judgement of acquittal recorded by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Bhavnagar in Sessions Case No.1/2011 against the present respondents original accused.

(2.) WE have perused the judgement under consideration as well as the record and proceedings of the case with the assistance of the learned APP Ms. Punani. The Sessions Case pertained to murder of one Devuben on 2.6.2009. Her dead body was found from the ravines of river Sirodiya. There were no eyewitness to the incident. Entire case was built by the prosecution on the strength of circumstantial evidence. The learned trial Judge however, did not find enough evidence on record to convict the accused. They were therefore, acquitted by the impugned judgement. Though we notice that the judgement of the learned Judge is somewhat cryptic and a discussion of evidence on record at a greater length would have been more appropriate, in our opinion, this by itself would not be sufficient for us to entertain this application, particularly, in view of the fact that there was no evidence at all on record to link the present respondents to the said offence. In the nutshell, therefore, in our opinion the learned Judge committed no error in recording the judgement of the acquittal.

(3.) HAVING carefully perused the oral evidence, we notice that there is absolutely no evidence to link the present respondents with the commission of offence. The prosecution has also not established any motive on part of the respondents in committing the offence. Of-course, a suggestion was made that accused no.1 had illicit relationship with the deceased who was a married lady. That itself even if believed is not sufficient motive for committing crime. In absence of any motive, in absence of any circumstantial evidence, in absence of any material on record, we do not find any reason to entertain the present Criminal Misc. Application, particularly, looking to the narrow scope of appeal against the judgement of acquittal.