TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2015 (9) TMI 1450
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....aw a dead body floating in a well near the Dhobi Ghat with hands tied at the back and the ankles were also tied. The police recovered the dead body, shifted it to Bowring Hospital Mortuary and thereafter published the photograph of the dead body in the newspaper. From this photograph, PW3 father of the deceased, reached the Bowring Hospital and identified the body as that of his son Ganesh. PW1 lodged a complaint with K.G. Halli Police Station and investigation started, and from the apprehension of PW3, accused Chand Basha was arrested on 23.01.2001. The investigation revealed that on 17.01.2001, PW12 (Appu) told PW3 that his son had gone to a wet party with the accused on 16.01.2001. The said wet party took place at Sindhur Bar at Lingaraj....
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....tance and had also failed to successfully prove the discovery evidence. The High Court held that the death may be a homicidal, but there is no evidence to connect the accused with the crime. In view of the aforesaid discrepancies, the High Court set aside the order of conviction passed by the Trial Court and acquitted the respondent. 5. The Appellant - State has challenged before us the judgment of acquittal passed by the High Court. Learned counsel for the appellant has inter alia raised the following grounds as incriminating circumstances in this appeal. Firstly, the motive behind the murder of the deceased was consistently and cogently proved by the testimony of PW3 father of the deceased, and PW4 sister of the deceased. Agreeing to thi....
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....stworthy. Attention was also drawn to the cross-examination of PW12 who contradicted his examination-in-chief that it was Raju Mistry and not the accused who hosted the wet party. 7. The Trial Court convicted the respondent on the basis of the prosecution story of 'last seen together' corroborated with 'recovery of material objects' and the 'motive of the accused'. The High Court also dealt with the issue and held that the Trial Court failed to appreciate the discrepancies occurring in the evidences. The High Court has examined at length the record of the case and reversed the finding of the Trial Court. 8. In the present appeal, we are concerned with the last two contentions as to whether the 'last seen together' ....
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.... personal interaction to each and every customer nor do they take details of each of their customers. PW 5 and PW6 also deposed that the two persons were also served 2 fried chicken. According to these witnesses, the two customers were served at about 8:30 PM. PW8 (shopkeeper) is another prosecution witness who testified that at about 10.00 PM on 16.01.2001, the accused along with one other person came to his shop and bought two cigarettes of Rs. 2/- each. This witness has also deposed that he does not personally know the accused or the other accompanying person. On careful examination of their depositions and cross-examination and also in light of the other medical evidence, some doubt is raised upon the chain of events. PW5 and PW6 stated....
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....f the other person who was together with the accused. This goes on to create a serious doubt on the 'last seen together' theory. 11. The prosecution pressed hard on the fact that the accused as well as the deceased were together on 16.01.2001 and the deceased was never seen again. The dead body was recovered on 20.01.2001 i.e. after 3 days and 4 nights. PW1 Dhobi deposed that he goes to the well daily to wash clothes and no question was asked as to the presence of a dead body in the well before 20.01.2001. Thus, the possibility of the deceased being thrown into the well later than 16.01.2001 cannot be ruled out completely, particularly when the post-mortem revealed that the victim last ate vegetables and rice. Even if depositions of PW5 an....
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....eased is found dead is so small that possibility of any person other than the accused being the author of the crime becomes impossible." Reiterating the above ratio, this Court recently in Krishnan @ Ramasamy and Others v. State of Tamil Nadu, (2014) 12 SCC 279, held that: "23. There is unexplained delay of six days in lodging the FIR. As per prosecution story the deceased Manikandan was last seen on 4-4-2004 at Vadakkumelur Village during Panguni Uthiram Festival at Mariyamman Temple. The body of the deceased was taken from the borewell by the fire service personnel after more than seven days. There is no other positive material on record to show that the deceased was last seen together with the accused and in the intervening period of ....