Supreme Court Upholds Acquittal Of Three Policemen In 36 Year Old Murder Case; Dismisses CBI's Appeal

The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a judgment of the Uttarakhand High Court which dismissed an application filed by the CBI seeking leave to appeal under section 378 (3) of CrPC against order passed by the trial court acquitting three policemen who were charged of murder while patrolling, on the ground that the circumstances found do not constitute a complete chain as to indicate that in all human probability it were the accused persons who committed the crime. The division bench of Justice B. V. Nagarathna and Justice Manoj Misra observed:“The circumstance that the accused persons were required to patrol that area and had left the police station for that end on that fateful night is a circumstance which is not conclusive as to turn the tables on the accused, inasmuch as the patrolling area covered two villages. It may be possible that the accused arrived at the spot late, when the incident had already taken place, and to chase away the miscreants, fired shots from their service rifles………….the circumstances ought to have formed a chain so far complete as to indicate that in all human probability it were the persons facing trial and none else who committed the crime.”Factual MatrixIn the night of June 24, 1987, one Raj Kumar Baliyan (the deceased) was killed. An FIR was lodged by PW-6 alleging that while he and PW-3, on one Scooter, and the deceased on another Scooter, were travelling from Muzaffarnagar to Meerapur to attend a marriage, near Bhatoda turn, at about 9.30 pm, in the light of the Scooter, they saw three policemen standing on the road. It was alleged that one of the policemen flashed a torch light on them due to which they lost control of their respective scooters, which skidded and fell. One of the policemen exhorted to shoot to kill. In consequence, shots were fired hitting the deceased, who collapsed at the spot. However, PW-3 and PW-6 managed to escape to the village. On information, villagers arrived at the scene of crime and so did the police. In the presence of police the deceased was rushed to the hospital but he succumbed to his injuries on the way.Another version of the incident was lodged at the instance of one Mahindra Singh on June 25, 1987 which states that May 16, 1987 a robbery took place in the village wherein one person died. As criminals were regularly visiting the village since then, a constant vigil was maintained by the villagers as well as the police which had been patrolling the area.It was alleged therein that while three police constables were patrolling the village and people of the village were keeping a watch in the night of June 24, 1987, at about 9.00 pm, a man came and raised an alarm that 5-6 criminals were about to come to the village on motorcycles and scooters. At about 9.30 pm, a motorcycle came and stopped a little ahead of Bhatoda turn. Thereafter, two scooters came at a fast speed. When torch lights were flashed and the scooters were signalled to stop, the rider fired a shot with a view to kill the villagers and the policemen. As a result, there was retaliatory fire by the police and the villagers. One of the criminals (deceased) was chased and nabbed by the villagers. Later, several villagers arrived and informed that the person caught is one Raj Kumar, Advocate. Thereafter, Raj Kumar was taken to the hospital.The investigation of the aforesaid two cases was assigned to CB-CID and later, for further investigation, to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) upon which, CBI registered a case. After investigation, CBI submitted a chargesheet against the accused persons (the respondents) under Section 302 read with Section 34 of IPC. After analysing the entire prosecution evidence in detail, the trial court vide judgment and order of acquittal dated December 13, 2011 concluded that the prosecution had failed to prove that those three policemen in uniform, who attacked the deceased, were the persons facing trial.The Uttarakhand High Court vide judgment and order dated July 26, 2012 allowed the delay condonation application but rejected the application filed by the State seeking leave to appeal and dismissed the appeal accordingly.While rejecting the application seeking leave to appeal, the High Court noticed that the prosecution case rested on three eye-witnesses’ accounts. Eye-witnesses PW-3 and PW-6 could not identify the policemen and in so far as PW-15 was concerned, he was found not reliable. Moreover, the medical evidence indicated that the deceased died due to gun-shot injuries fired from a .12 bore weapon and not a rifle, which was with the accused, hence, granting leave to appeal to formally hear the appeal would be an exercise in futility.SubmissionsThe Additional Solicitor General (ASG), Vikramjit Banerjee appearing for the appellants submitted that this is a case where it was proved beyond doubt that the deceased was shot by persons who were wearing police uniform.It was further submitted that the presence of the three policemen (accused) at the...

Supreme Court Upholds Acquittal Of Three Policemen In 36 Year Old Murder Case; Dismisses CBI's Appeal

Udit Singh

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