VYAS, J. - (1.) INSTANT criminal appeal has come up for hearing upon application filed by the respondent praying that respondent may be exempted from giving appearance twice in a year before the learned District & Sessions Judge, Merta. During course of arguments, however, in view of the fact that appeal itself is pending since 1993, preferred by the State against judgment of acquittal, with the consent of the parties, final arguments on the appeal itself have been heard.
(2.) IN this appeal filed by the State of Rajasthan, judgment dated 26.08.1992 passed by learned Sessions Judge, Merta in Sessions Case No.1/89 is under challenge, whereby, the learned trial Court acquitted the respondent from the charges levelled against him for offences under Sections 302 and 201, I.P.C. Facts of the case indicate that on 06.09.1988, at about 1.45 P.M., P.W.-1 Hanuman filed a report at Police Station Nawa City stating therein that he is having agriculture field in village Nawa, situated near Bhiwara Nada, in which, he has sown bajra and, on 06.091988, at about 12 P.M., when he went to his field, he found that a dead body was lying in his agriculture field which was covered with a red bed-sheet and only hands of the body were visible. Upon this report, inquest proceedings under Section 174, Cr.P.C. was initiated and Police Station Nawa City proceeded to make investigation in the matter. The concerned police officer of the Police Station Nawa City made all necessary formalities including post mortem examination of the body. Upon receiving the port mortem report, it revealed that body of the deceased was crushed under heavy motor vehicle, therefore, it was found that the case is of homocidal death to be registered under Section 302, I.P.C. Hence, case was registered against unknown person under Section 302, I.P.C. For the purpose of identity, upon search, identity card was found whereby it has come to the knowledge of the investigating officer that the dead body was of one Gurdev Singh. The police further made investigation and, in the investigation, statements of various persons were recorded including P.W.-8 Avtar Singh and P.W.-9 Dharam Singh and, as per testimony of these persons, it was found that deceased was living at Makrana with respondent Pooran Singh, therefore, on the basis of circumstantial evidence, the respondent was charge-sheeted before the Court of Munsiff & Judl. Magistrate, Ist Class, Nawa, from where, the case was committed to the Sessions Court, Merta. Learned Sessions Judge, Merta framed charges under Sections 302 and 201, I.P.C. and, after framing charge, opportunity was granted to the prosecution to lead evidence in support of its case. The prosecution produced 21 witnesses and as many as 44 documents were exhibited. After completion of the evidence of the prosecution side, statement of respondent Pooran Singh was recorded under Section 313, Cr.P.C. and, thereafter, in defence, opportunity to produce evidence was granted to the respondent- accused. Respondent produced two documents with regard to the fact that he was having truck No.RSB 3688. After hearing both the parties, upon completion of the trial, learned trial Court acquitted the respondent from the charges levelled against him for offences punishable under Sections 302 and 201,I.P.C. Learned Public Prosecutor for the State Shri K.R. Bishnoi while arguing on merit submitted that the learned trial Court has committed error whereby the trial Court has acquitted the respondent even though there was ample evidence on record to convict the respondent-accused. As per learned counsel for the appellant State, P.W.-8 Avtar Singh has unequivocally and specifically stated that he was driving the truck of Kaka Singh which is being run from Makrana to Calcutta and from Makrana to Punjab; and, upon the said truck, previously the deceased was working as Khalasi. Further, he was dismissed from service by the owner of the said truck; and, thereafter, he went to the respondent who was having truck No.RSB 3688; meaning thereby, the prosecution has proved the fact that late Gurdev Singh was working with Pooran Singh, accused-respondent and this fact of serving last with respondent Pooran Singh was although proved but his testimony was not accepted by the trial Court which is erroneous. Learned counsel for the State further argued that as per testimony of P.W.-14 Ishwar Singh, it is abundantly dear that at the instance of accused respondent one bag was recovered and, upon opening the said bag, one Chaddar, shirt, payjama and other clothes and one diary of 1988 were found and, for the said purpose, Ex-P/12 was prepared. It is also submitted that as per testimony of PW.- 14 Ishwar Singh, those articles which were found in the bag belonged to the deceased, therefore, on the basis of drcumstantial evidence he was to be convicted by the trial Court but the trial Court has acquitted the accused respondent, therefore, the finding arrived at by the trial Court suffers from illegality. While inviting attention towards statement of P.W.-7 Gurubhajan Singh, father of the deceased, it is submitted that his son went to Avtar Singh but did not return back but Avtar Singh admitted in his statement that Gurdev Singh was working with him as khalasi but, after some time, he left the job and was working with Pooran Singh. Further, P.W.-7 Gurubhajan Singh identified the dothes which were recovered from respondent Pooran Singh. Therefore, as per the chain of evidence, the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt but the learned trial Court committed serious error by acquitting the accused-respondent from the charge levelled against him. Learned trial Court has wrongly discredited the evidence of PW.-8 Avtar Singh, P.W.-15 Tara Chand and P.W.-7 Gurubhajan Singh though they have corroborated the prosecution case, therefore, the impugned judgment deserves to be quashed and, on the basis of re-appreciation of the evidence on record, the respondent-accused is liable to be punished for offences under Sections 302 and 201, I.P.C. Per contra, learned counsel for the respondent vehemently argued that the finding arrived at by the learned trial Court does not require any interference because the learned Judge has considered all aspects of the matter and found that charge framed against the respondent on the basis of drcumstantial evidence is not proved by the prosecution. It is specifically argued that father of the deceased; P.W.-7 Gurubhajan Singh has not identified the dead-body because he was not given the opportunity to identify the body of the deceased. In this case, cremation of the body was made without any information to the family members and, in the statement of P.W.-7 Gurubhajan Singh, recorded by the trial Court, it is specifically stated by him that there was no mark of peacock tattooed on the hand of his son but P.W.-17 Ram Narayan was produced as evidence to prove the photo of the deceased who specifically deposed that there was mark of peacock tattooed upon the hand of the said body. It is stated by P.W-17 Ram Narayan that there were two signs upon the left palm of the deceased, one of flower and the other was tattooed peacock. Learned trial Court having perused the documents Ex.-P/22, Ex.-P/23 and Ex.P/24 found that there is mark of tattooed peacock upon the body of the deceased, therefore, on the basis of doubtful story the learned trial Court acquitted the accused-respondent from the chargesd levelled against him. With regard to recovery, it is submitted by learned counsel for the respondent that it has not been proved beyond reasonable doubt by the prosecution, therefore, the judgment rendered by the trial Court does not require any interference and it can be said that finding of the learned trial Court is based upon proper appreciation of the evidence on record. We have perused the entire record of the case. In this case, there is no eye-witness, so also, as per the prosecution story the body of the deceased Gurdev Singh was cremated prior to information to his family members and was not identified by any of the family members. Further, it is also observed by the trial Court that father of the deceased P.W.-7 Gurubhajan Singh stated before the Court that there was no tattoo mark of peacock upon the hand of his son; but, as per the prosecution story, from the photographs submitted before the Court, it was found that the person whose photographs were brought on record, there was dear sign of tattooed peacock on the hand of the said body; meaning thereby, serous doubt is created by the prosecution itself. Therefore, it can be said that prosecution has not proved its case beyond reasonable doubt, so also, circumstantial evidence coming on record does not even prove that the dead body was, in fact, of Gurdev Singh. Therefore, the finding does not require any interference with regard to identification of the body.
(3.) WE have also perused the finding of the learned trial Court with regard to recovery and last seen. In our opinion, the learned trial Court, after considering the entire material on record, discussed the entire evidence in right perspective and held that prosecution has failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt, therefore, the respondent is entitled to be acquitted from the charges levelled against him. It appears from the entire discussion made by the trial Court that chain of circumstances has not been so formed to bring home guilt upon the respondent- accused. In view of the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of Jaharlal Das Vs. State of Orissa, AIR 1991 SC 1388, we are satisfied that prosecution has failed to prove the case before the court and there is no evidence on record, upon which, finding of guilt can be arrived at against the respondent- accused. So also, there is no material on record to prove that the circumstances taken cumulatively can form a chain so complete that there is no escape from the conclusion that within all human probabilities the crime was committed by the accused and none else. In this view of the matter, we are of the opinion that no error has been committed by the trial Court while acquitting the respondent from the charges levelled against him. More so, entire evidence placed on record by the prosecution creates serious doubt with regard to commission of the offence by the respondent, As a result of the foregoing discussion, this appeal filed by the State against the judgment impugned fails and is hereby dismissed.;