Deciding Authority: The Supreme Court of India
Briefly, the facts of the case are:
PW1 Roop Basant recorded by scribe Soran Lal at 12:45 p.m. on 24.02.2006, Crime No.23 was registered with Police Station Khurja Dehaat, Bulandshahar against the respondents. It was alleged that on that day Akash aged about 8 years, nephew of said PW1 was playing near Ambedkar Park. At about 10 a.m. respondent Subhadra took said Akash to her baithak, which was seen by villagers Mewa Ram and Vijay Pal. At that time three sons of said Subhadra, who along with Subhadra are respondents herein, were sitting in the Verandah. They went inside taking Akash along with them and did not come out for about half an hour. It was alleged that the respondents then came out with a “thaal” filled with articles of worship (pooja samagri) and went towards Chamunda Math for worship. Since Mewa Ram and Vijay Pal did not see Akash coming out, they suspected some foul play and soon after the respondents had left for Chamunda Math they went inside the baithak. As they entered, they saw dead body of Akash lying in a pool of blood with nostrils and ears cut. They raised hue and cry, which attracted number of villagers. When the villagers saw body of Akash, the situation took an ugly turn and there was complete chaos. The people then went to the Math and assaulted the respondents.
The police thereafter arrived in the village and Inquest Panchanama was conducted between 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Around this time, the respondents were arrested at about 3:30 p.m. After the inquest, the body of Akash was sent for post mortem. PW7 Dr. Rajesh Kumar conducted post mortem at 4:30 p.m and found following ante mortem injuries on the body of said Akash.
Judgment:
The court observed that the respondents were apprehended the same day when one of them i.e. respondent Sanjay was allegedly found to be in possession of blood stained dharati or sickle. According to the prosecution the weapon was blood stained and was kept in the folds of dhoti by said Sanjay. However, no such blood stained dhoti of respondent Sanjay was recovered. For that matter no blood stained clothes were recovered from any of the respondents though they were supposed to be authors of the crime which left body of Akash in a pool of blood. Even the blood stains found on the cemented portion from Chamunda Math, though of human origin, were quite disintegrated as per FSL examination. In the circumstances and particularly when we are considering an appeal against acquittal, the interference in the present case would be justified and called for, only if we were to find the testimony of the sole witness of such character that it could be fully relied upon. In the present matter where the accused are being tried for an offence punishable with capital punishment, the scrutiny needs to be stricter. In our view the material on record definitely falls short and the respondents are entitled to benefit of doubt. We, therefore, affirm the view taken by the High Court and dismiss the state appeals. The appeal preferred by the Complainant is also dismissed.