Patna High Court: A Division Bench comprising of Ajay Kumar Tripathi and Vinod Kumar Sinha, JJ. declared that there were no reasons that added up to convict the accused.
The appellants were convicted under Section 302 read with Sections 34 and 201 of the Penal Code, 1860 to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life. The prosecution had accused the appellants for being involved in the murder of the deceased and giving due reliance upon the fact that the deceased was the wife of the appellant-son along with the fact that the death happened within 3 years of marriage, the onus was upon the appellants as per Section 106 of the Indian Evidence Act to explain the above contention. It was to be noted that in the post-mortem report the cause of death was strangulation but, neither any eyewitnesses were placed on record nor was there any link to establish the said act along with the fact that there was no motive with the appellant to kill the deceased.
Accordingly, the Court was of the view that there was only circumstantial evidence placed before them and hence the appellant cannot be charged solely on that basis.[Galmuni Ram v. State of Bihar,2017 SCC OnLine Pat 3377, decided on 11-11-2017]
