TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2000 (11) TMI 1186
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.... molestation inflicted on the child. Next day the police arrested the two accused (A1-Sunil and A2-Ramesh) and after completing the investigation charge-sheeted both of them for offences under Sections 364, 376, 377 and 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code. After the trial the sessions court convicted both of them under all the aforesaid counts and sentenced A2 Ramesh to death and A1 Sunil to imprisonment for life on the charge of murder and awarded lesser sentences for the remaining counts. Details of the prosecution case are the following: Anuradhas mother Sharda (PW10) was known to A1 Sunil and his mother (Giano Devi). Sharda had stayed in the house of Giano Devi for a few days and their acquaintance became closer. Sharda was working in a tube-light manufacturing factory during those days. As she needed a place to live in Giano Devi arranged a small hutment (Jhuggi) with the help of another lady (PW8 Tara) who was residing close-by. On the occurrence day Sharda went to the factory for work leaving her child Anuradha in the custody of PW8-Tara. At about 11 A.M. Sunil visited them and expressed to PW8-Tara that he would take the child and her clothes as well as som....
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.... Dilated and blood was coming out of it. The diameter was 1.5 cm. The area around the orifice was showing swelling with reddish contusion in an area of 2 cm. DR. Basant Lal (PW-1) further noted that the vaginal orifice was so badly mutilated that one middle finger could be easily admitted into it. Even the tongue was not spared in that violence as the doctor found its position like this: The tongue was showing abrasion 0.5 x 0.5 cm. on its front right outer aspect with contusion around. Reddish bluish in colour Bite mark. During examination of the head of the body PW1 noticed thick layered bluish-reddish effusion of blood on the right temporal parietal region. Though there was no fracture of the skull the duramater on the left side looked bluish, and there was thick subdural haemotoma in an area of 20x10x0.8 cm. and one fist full clotted blood, and patchy subarachnoid haemorrage all over the brain which were also noticed by the doctor. From the woeful and eerie features d....
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....and sodomised and that death was due to the injuries sustained in that exercise. When the above premise is so certain the task of the court is narrowed down to the limited area i.e., were the two respondents the rapists or is there any reasonable scope to think that somebody else would have done those acts. The trial court came to the conclusion that the culprits are the two respondents and none else. The Sessions Judge found that prosecution has established the following circumstances: (1) Sunil (1st accused) had taken the child from the house of PW8 Tara by about noon on 5.9.1992. (2) The child was recovered from the house of A1 Sunil and she was then found breathless. (3) That child was lying naked by the side of A2 Ramesh who was in deep sleep when the mother of the child lifted her up. (4) A1 Sunil, who was then in inebriated condition, blurted out that Anuradha was sent to heaven. (5) The blood-stained nicker of Anuradha was later recovered from the house of A2 Ramesh on the basis of a statement given to the police. The trial court concluded on the strength of those circumstances that both the respondents are liable to be convicted for murder, rape and unnatural offe....
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....s mother Sharda. (2) There is nothing to indicate that PW10 Sharda made any enquiry about the clothes and utensils. (3) PW8 Tara could not explain as to what she understood when A1 Sunil wanted to take away the child with him. (4) Nobody from the neighbourhood of Tara was examined to corroborate her evidence. (5) The testimony of PW8 Tara was contradictory with the evidence of PW10 Sharda. We perused the evidence of PW8-Tara, PW10-Sharda and their neighbour PW12-Dariba. True, there are discrepancies between the evidence of those three witnesses, but we have not come across any discrepancy worth quoting for consideration as they are immaterial. Such discrepancies are common features in the testimony of any two witnesses. It was too much of a strain for the judicial mind to ferret out some minor discrepancies as between the testimony of those three witnesses. Even the other reasons advanced by the Division Bench of the High Court are ex facie puerile and evidence given on oath by the bereaved mother PW10-Sharda and her other associate PW8-Tara, cannot be jettisoned on such insignificant reasons. In our view the High Court ought not to have sidelined the evidence of those three wit....
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....e by the police is cast on the police officer when searches are made under Chapter VII of the Code. Section 100(5) of the Code requires that such search shall be made in their presence and a list of all things seized in the course of such search and of the places in which they are respectively found, shall be prepared by such officer or other person and signed by such witnesses. It must be remembered that search is made to find out a thing or document which the searching officer has no prior idea where the thing or document is kept. He prowls for it either on reasonable suspicion or on some guess work that it could possibly be ferreted out in such prowling. It is a stark reality that during searches the team which conducts search would have to meddle with lots of other articles and documents also and in such process many such articles or documents are likely to be displaced or even strewn helter-skelter. The legislative idea in insisting on such searches to be made in the presence of two independent inhabitants of the locality is to ensure the safety of all such articles meddled with and to protect the rights of the persons entitled thereto. But recovery of an object pursuant to th....
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....ition of law the presumption should be the other way around. That official acts of the police have been regularly performed is a wise principle of presumption and recognised even by the legislature. Hence when a police officer gives evidence in court that a certain article was recovered by him on the strength of the statement made by the accused it is open to the court to believe the version to be correct if it is not otherwise shown to be unreliable. It is for the accused, through cross-examination of witnesses or through any other materials, to show that the evidence of the police officer is either unreliable or at least unsafe to be acted upon in a particular case. If the court has any good reason to suspect the truthfulness of such records of the police the court could certainly take into account the fact that no other independent person was present at the time of recovery. But it is not a legally approvable procedure to presume the police action as unreliable to start with, nor to jettison such action merely for the reason that police did not collect signatures of independent persons in the documents made contemporaneous with such actions. In this case, the mere absence of ....