'Mystery Surrounds Prosecution’s Case': SC Acquits Man Sentenced To Life Imprisonment For Murdering Mother

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday acquitted a man who was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering his mother. The judgment was delivered by a bench comprising Justices K V Viswanathan and K Vinod Chandran. "There is a mystery surrounding the genesis and origin of the prosecution case," said the bench.

The bench said on a complete reading of the evidence of four prosecution witnesses, who all admittedly landed up on the morning of July 22, 2010, at the site of the alleged attempted first cremation, "a lingering doubt still remains in our mind as to why further leads from that time, place and alleged event were not picked up and why no further investigation as to who organized the cremation was carried out".

"All four admit to having seen a pile of wood for the funeral being organized and the body of the deceased kept on it. Admittedly, there were lots of people who had gathered. The police team noticed injuries on the body of the deceased and had the body taken down from the pyre. When it was announced that the deceased had been murdered, evidence is that the crowd ran away from the spot," said the bench.

The apex court said no leads from the crowd, who gathered there, have been picked out and nobody has been examined in court. There is no evidence to show that the present appellant was present at the site of the first attempted cremation, or any of the relatives of the deceased, it noted. The prosecution alleged that the last rites of the deceased were hurriedly carried out and the body was removed from the pyre after strangulation marks on the neck and an injury on the backside of the skull were found.

The bench noted that the doctor opined that the cause of death was asphyxia by strangulation and there was no ligature mark from the back side of the neck. During cross-examination, the doctor clearly deposed that the absence of a ligature mark on the back side of neck is possible in case of hanging. He further deposed that in case of strangulation; the ligature mark should be present all around the neck.

"We are constrained to hold that, based on the deposition of Dr. PW (prosecution witness)-6 examined by the prosecution, a serious doubt arises as to whether at all the deceased died a homicidal death", said the bench.

The bench said that the candid admission of the doctor that in the absence of ligature mark on the back side of the neck hanging cannot be ruled out and the further reinforcement that in strangulation ligature mark should be present all around the neck lead us to conclude that this is not a case where "we can safely opine that the death was by homicide".

The bench said there is no definite medical opinion and in view of the considerable ambiguity in the evidence of doctor, death by suicide, cannot be said to be completely ruled out. The apex court made these observations while setting aside a July 2013 order of the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court which upheld his conviction in the 2010 case.

The apex court said that the case rests entirely on circumstantial evidence. "We have already recorded a finding that the story of four prosecution witnesses about the genesis and origin has not been convincing. That failure to investigate the alleged crowd which had assembled and disbursed at the first alleged attempted cremation of the deceased baffles one's comprehension", said the bench.

The bench noted that appellant’s counsel contended that during the investigation, police obtained a certificate, dated September 26, 1989, issued by a hospital in Latur in Maharashtra which indicated that the deceased was suffering from schizophrenia. The bench said it was alleged that the appellant murdered his mother for property.

"Having come out with a case of motive, the prosecution has miserably failed to establish the same. It has come on record that the appellant has his father as well as two sisters who are alive," it said. The bench said it is not as if that the property would, on the death of the deceased, immediately devolve on the appellant in the event of the alleged murder by him going undetected.

The trial court convicted two persons in the case and sentenced them to life imprisonment. The high court upheld the conviction of the appellant while acquitting the other person.

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