TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2010 (7) TMI 1207
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....elp to take her to a doctor for treatment. By the time, she could be lifted to be taken for treatment, she died. In these circumstances, while he was planning to go to the police station, the Sub-Inspector Hirdya Narain Singh came there who was subsequently examined as PW4. The Investigating Officer started the inquest proceedings and the dead body was sent for postmortem to Sadar Hospital, Biharsharif. The postmortem was conducted and the report Ex.4 was prepared on 14th December, 1985. It was noticed that she had suffered from burn injuries, both her eyes were closed and the tongue was protruding. Keeping in view the postmortem report, the Investigating Officer had a suspicion in mind and thereafter an FIR was recorded with reference to the postmortem report, it was found that Bimla Devi had died on account of throttling and ante-mortem injuries and, with an intention to cause disappearance of evidence, the body was burnt. The F.I.R. was Ext.5 and a case under Section 302 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code (herein after referred to as 'IPC') was registered. The suspect of commission of this crime was found to be Mannu Sao himself, the appellant herein. The Investigating Off....
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.... 4. Three Judge Bench in the case of Sharad v. State of Maharashtra AIR 1984 SC 1622 held as under: 152. Before discussing the cases relied upon by the High Court we would like to cite a few decisions on the nature, character and essential proof required in a criminal case which rests on circumstantial evidence alone. The most fundamental and basic decision of this Court is Hanumant v. State of Madhya Pradesh. This case has been uniformly followed and applied by this Court in a large number of later decisions up-to-date, For instance, the cases of Tufail (alias) Simmi v. State of Uttar Pradesh and Ramgopal v. State of Maharashtra. It may be useful to extract what Mahajan, J. has laid down in Hanumant case: It is well to remember that in cases where the evidence is of a circumstantial nature, the circumstances from which the conclusion of guilt is to be drawn should in the first instance be fully established, and all the facts so established should be consistent only with the hypothesis of the guilt of the accused. Again, the circumstances should be of a conclusive nature and tendency and they should be such as to exclude every hypothesis but the one proposed to....
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....rther noticed that while circumstances often speak with unerring certainty, the autopsy and the chemical analysis taken by them may be most misleading. No doubt, due weightage must be given to the negative findings at such examination which the man of medicine performs and the limitations under which he works, his failure should not be taken as an end of the case, for on good and probative circumstances an irresistible inference of guilt can be drawn. 6. Similar view was taken by a Bench of this Court in the case of Dayanidhi Bisoi v. State of Orissa AIR 2003 SC 3915 where in a case of circumstantial evidence the Court even confirmed the death sentence as being rarest of rare cases. The Court clearly held that it is not a circumstance or some of the circumstances which by itself, would assist the Court to base a conviction but all circumstances put forth against the accused once are established beyond reasonable doubt then conviction must follow and all the inordinate circumstances would be used for corroborating the case of the prosecution. 7. It is of similar significance for the Court to examine whether the requirements to be established in a case of circumstantial evidenc....
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....used during the enquiry and the trial. Over the period of time, the Courts have explained this concept and now it has attained, more or less, certainty in the field of criminal jurisprudence. The statement of the accused can be used to test the veracity of the exculpatory nature of the admission, if any, made by the accused. It can be taken into consideration in any enquiry or trial but still it is not strictly evidence in the case. The provisions of Section 313(4) explicitly provides that the answers given by the accused may be taken into consideration in such enquiry or trial and put as evidence against the accused in any other enquiry or trial for any other offence for which such answers may tend to show he has committed. In other words, the use is permissible as per the provisions of the Code but has its own limitations. The Courts may rely on a portion of the statement of the accused and find him guilty in consideration of the other evidence against him led by the prosecution, however, such statements made under this Section should not be considered in isolation but in conjunction with evidence adduced by the prosecution. Another important caution that Courts have declar....
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....he witness box [and that] they have to be received in evidence and treated as evidence and be duly considered at the trial. This position remains unaltered even after the insertion of Section 315 in the Code and any statement under Section 313 has to be considered in the same way as if Section 315 is not there. 13. The object of examination under this section is to give the accused an opportunity to explain the case made against him. This statement can be taken into consideration in judging his innocence or guilt. Where there is an onus on the accused to discharge, it depends on the facts and circumstances of the case if such statement discharges the onus. 10. The statement made by the accused is capable of being used in the trial though to a limited extent. But the law also places an obligation upon the Court to take into consideration the stand of the accused in his statement and consider the same objectively and in its entirety. This principle of law has been stated by this Court in the case of Hate Singh Bhagat Singh v. State of Madhya Bharat AIR 1953 SC 468. 11. Let us now examine the relevant part of the statement made by the accused under Section 313 of the Code ....
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....cubine) of the accused, Manu Sao, and that the accused was living with her in his cabin at village Mohanpur. It is also not disputed that the woman had died and had burnt injury on her person. U.D. case on the statement of Manu Sao as informant, was institute which was converted into a case under Section 302/301 I.P.C. on the written report of the officer-in-charge on the receipt of the post-mortem report (Ext.2) on the dead body of Bimla Devi. 9. From Ext.6, it appears that the officer-in-charge, P.W.4, had gone to the place of occurrence on hearing rumour after making station diary entry regarding a woman lying burnt at village Mohanpur near the cabin of the accused. P.W.4 Hirdya Narain Singh, the officer-in-charge, who had gone to the place of occurrence had found the dead body of a woman lying in a chilly field near the cabin of the informant and she had burnt injury. Manu Sao, accused, had maintained that till 9.30 A.M. and when he returned at 10.30 A.M. he found his wife Bimla Devi lying burnt in a chili field near his cabin and had also seen trace of K. oil. extending from well near the cabin up to the door of the cabin.... 13. In light of the above undisputed po....
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.... Bimla Devi by the accused. It is urged by the learned Counsel for the defence that the possibility of the hand of the father of the deceased woman and his family member cannot be ruled out. There is nothing on the record to show that there was at any time protest by the father of the deceased rather there is evidence on record to show that the accused conduct was constantly opposed by his own castmen. (6) If the woman had burnt herself for which evidence created by the husband (accused) then how could she inflict injury on her person and how there could be trolling which the doctor had found during the post-mortem examination. (7) The learned defence counsel urged that the fardbeyan of the accused recorded by police inadmissible and this cannot be used against him as this statement was made to a police officer. This case has not been instituted on the basis of the fardbeyan of the accused rather on the statement and written information of the P.W. 4. The written report of the U.D. case and the information given by Manu Sao cannot be equated with first information of confession by the accused. I his (sic) statement was made by him when he was not accused rather an....
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....is witness was produced and examined in Court, he might have spoken the truth which was not suitable or favourable to the accused. For reasons best known and which remained unexplained, this witness was not examined though in his statement under Section 313 of Cr.P.C. in answer to the last question he had stated that he was innocent and would give in writing whatever he wanted to say. Despite this, no defence was led by the appellant. PW1 stated in his examination-in-chief that the tube well of the accused Manu Sao was located north of his khalian in village Mohanpur and that Bimla Devi was living with the accused and when about 10.00 A.M. on the date of occurrence, he had gone there he had seen Bimla Devi in a burnt condition. According to him, the police had come and prepared an inquest report which was signed by him. The statement of this witness is that of the truthful witness and he has not tried to add or subtract anything in his statement what he stated before the police during investigation. In face of his statement, the relevancy of PW2 being declared hostile is hardly of any consequence. Strangely, even to this witness even a question was not posed in his cross examinatio....