Case Brief: Smt.Bimla Devi Vs. State of Haryana

Deciding Authority: Supreme Court of India
Date of Judgment: 10th April, 2003
Bench: Justice N.Santosh Hegde & Justice B.P.Singh.
Facts of the Case: The appellant herein, alongwith five others, was charged for offences punishable under Sections 302, 325 and 323 read with Section 34 IPC before the Additional Sessions Judge, Rewari for having committed the murder of one Jaipal Singh on 10th of August, 1992. The learned Sessions Judge after the trial came to the conclusion held that one of the accused by named Ashok was not guilty of the offence charged against him and acquitted him while he convicted the other accused including the appellant herein for offences punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC and directed them to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay find of Rs.2000/- each. He further convicted the said accused under Section 325 read with Section 34 IPC and sentenced them to undergo RI for a period of one year and to pay a fine of Rs.500/- each. He also convicted the said accused for an offence punishable under Section 323 read with Section 34 IPC and sentenced them to undergo RI for a period of three months each. He directed all the substantive sentences to run concurrently. The convicted accused preferred an appeal before the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh which appeal came to be dismissed consequent to which this appeal was preferred. This Court while entertaining the appeal granted leave to appeal to this appellant only while dismissing the SLP of other accused. Therefore, the present appeal before us is confined to the case of appellant Bimla Devi only.
Judgment of the Case: The Supreme Court held that apart from the above discrepancy in the oral and medical evidence, we also notice from the inquest proceedings the use of a Bankri has not been mentioned while other weapons like Lathi, Jaily and Kulhari have been mentioned. Then it is to be noticed that even though the Bankri was recovered within four days after the incident and sent for chemical examination the report of the Chemical Examiner shows the absence of any blood stain. This coupled with the fact that even in the FIR PW-1 the eye-witness has not attributed any overt act to the appellant further creates very serious doubt in the case of the prosecution as to the involvement of the appellant. Having considered the entire material that is
produced by the prosecution against the appellant, we are of the view that the prosecution has failed to prove its case against the appellant Bimla Devi. Therefore, the courts below, in our opinion, have erred in convicting the appellant. For the reasons stated above, this appeal succeeds and the same is allowed.