MANI v. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

Citation: [2008] 1 S.C.R. 228

Court: Supreme Court of India

Bench: P.P. NAOLEKAR, V.S. SIRPURKAR

Case summary

MANI v. STATE OF TAMIL NADU.pdf

Judgment text

[2008] 1S. C. R. 228 ·. --. MANI v. STATE OF TAMIL NADU (Crl. A. No. 443 of 2006) JANUARY 8, 2008 [P. P. NAOLEKAR AND V. S. SIRPURKAR, JJ. ] .. Penal Code, 1860 - s. 302 - Murder - Prosecution of two accused - Circumstantial evidence - Deceased last seen with both the accused - Motive for murder alleged to be strained relation between the co-accused and father of the deceased - Offencf! alleged to have been committed in the house of the accused - Blood stainecl articles found in the house - Delay in lodging FIR - Recovery of clothes and weapon of offence at the behest of both the accused - · Witnesses to the recovery turning hostile - Conviction of both the accused by trial court- High Court convicting the accused,· . ,.

, but acquitting the co-accused disbelieving the circumstances of motive and discovery - On appeal held: Conviction not ;ustified - Prosecution failed to prove exclusive ownership and possession of the house where blood stains found - No proof that the discovered clothes belonged to the accused - In the · circumstances of the case discovery is without any credence - Motive against the accused not proved. .. /Evidence Act, 1. 872 - s. 27 - Discovery - Evidentiary ~ ... value of- Held: It is a weak kind of evidence - Conviction on. the basis of such evidence alone, not permissible. Appellant-accused along with another accused (A·2), was prosecuted for having kllled one person. According to the prosecution case, the motive for murder was on account of strained relationship between A·2 and father of the deceased. Circumstances leadlng to the Incident were that the appellant-accused took the deceased alongwlth him at about $. 00 P. M. on the day of the Incident.

When the deceased did not return home tlll 10. 00 P. M. , ... ,. PW-1 (father of the deceased) went to the house of the appellant, he saw that blood was oozing from the water passage underneath the door frame of the locked house of the ippellant. He returned back and was told by PW-2 that the deceased was last seen in the company of the appellant and A-2. On the next day morning, when PW-1 went to the house of the appellant, he found trail of blood near the house. The body of the deceased· was traced -~ lying in the field belonging to PW 5. Thereafter PW-1 lodged the~complaint with police. During investigation, when the house of the appellant was broke open, blood-stained materials like cement flooring, human hair and brass lock were found. Appellant surrendered before the court. Blood stained clothes of accused (MO 15-17) and koduval (MO 18) were recovered as his behest. A-2 was also arrested and his blood-stained clothes were recovered.

Trial Court convicted both the accused u/s 302 IPC. High Court acquitted A-2 disbelieving the circumstances of motive )r and recovery. However, appellant was convicted. Hence the present appeal against the conviction. Allowing the appeal, the Court HELD: 1. This is not a c;ase where the prosecution has proved the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubts. This is clearly a case for benefit of doubt. [Para 25] [242-DJ 2. The first circumstance held by the High Court against the appellant is that the Koduval (iVl. 0. 18) was found with sticking hair and it is proved that the scalp hair of the diceased was found similar to the hair sticking . to the Koth. ivai and that M. Os 15, 16 and 17 were the clothes found with stained blood. This circumstance by I - - Itself IS of no consequence. Even if it is accepted that the Koduval and the alleged clothes had the blood stains, that does ·not connect the appellant with the crime. [Paras 15 and 22) (237-D, E; 241-F] 3.

1 High Court suggested that if the appellant took the deceased at 6. 00 p. m. on 24. 11. 1996 to his house where ttre deceased was done away with, the burden shifted on the first accused to show how the· deceased · died in- his house. This is not the correct position of law.. ' The appellant had very clearly :stated in his examinatioh under Section 3-13 ChP:C. that the house did not belong to his father and that it was lying vacant and nobody had occupied it:There-is no evidence worth the name lead by· ' the prosecution to -suggest the _exdusive owne·r. shi)> or. ·. the possession of the house belonged to th1f appeffa11t. '. Much could have been done. to establish itS'dWnetship by filing the revenue record of that house7'N,o such. documentary evidence was collected by the prosecution. · ·' The Higl1 cGurt has not discus,sed this asp·ect. M'excl~si~~ :. ownership and possession at all arid has·'proceeded on". the presumption that the hou'se belonged 'io a11c:r'was .

, posses·sed by the appellant herein. [Pcira 161'[2. 37°-F, G, t-i; . 238-A, B, CJ , . · ·, . . . ' .. - 3. 2 The Panch witness P. W. 6. though had referred to the said house as th~ _ho\,lse of the appellant; has clearJy admitted in his cross-examination that he did not know as to in whose name stood the said house. [Para '17) [238-C] . . . ~.. . '. ·... ~-···-~ ... ·-~·: .. ~ 3:3 The Investigating O'fficer PW 14, has nev,er, asserted that the concerned house was appellant's hquse. · though he, in his examination-in-chief referred to that ho4s~ as appellant's house. He had to admit in his cr0ss + .. examination that he djd not interrogate any other resident ·· He also had admitted that he had never que~tfoned the Village Administrative Officer as to in whose name was the s~id house.

Though this witness commonly referred to that house as appellant's house, it ls difficult to hold that -the prosecution had established the exclusive ownership and possession of that house as against the appellant. [Par. a 18 ] [238-E, F, G] ·· · -- 4. 1 The two witnesses to the discovery had turned . MANI v. STATE OF TAMIL NAo'U 231 hostHe~·. They c·ompletely disowned the 'prosecution case that\thefappellant was examirielf by the Inspector and during that. examination, appellamt was enquired and he gave . confessional statement-arid· that he would' show the . hidden clothes which he worn at the time of the incident and ~lso. th. e kodu~~I which was. used . at the time of t~e incident. They only accepted that they. had. signed the said statement. Beith. these witnesses were. chance witnesses, they' be. ing':the reg~lar'visitors to the poll'te station, and it appe'ars tha. t they_,wEfre merely ysed b. y the investigating ·, 1-~ , , • • • agency: In fat:J, tfier~.

is no explana~ion on how these two wit'nEtsses· r~acJ1e'd the police station at a! I. [Paxa 20) [239-B ·C ·'E 'l=f' . \ .. : . .. . . .. . .. ' : . , - '~~-~ :~ "If'! ·J: . . •-.. ,l • ·- ••• . ·,_,·, •• ' • . ·,. 4. 2 A very Jmportant circumstance was missed by the courtsJ>~low·w~J~ cQnsidering the evidence regarding the· discovery. This is about the place where the articles 0 1 were 'foUnCf: This was nothin~fbut a farce of discovery and could rl'eViif have been accepted particularly because all the discovered articles'Were lyi'ngbare open barely 300 feet awaylfrorn·the b'ody of the deceased. Where the discove'1'5' of· the relevant ·articles have been made from the. open gr'ollnd;1hough:·under the 'bush, that too after more than 10 days of the incident, such discovery would be wi~h()Ht any. fr~~~nc;e,, [Para . 29} {239-C, D; 240-C, D, EJ . ·4. 3 The. · discovery is a weak kind of evidence and cannot be·wflolly· relieC:t'upbn and· conviction• in such l + seri. ous matter.

cannot be'based upon the discovery. Once the discoveryJails,-there would be literally nothing which would. support the. prosecution case. The prosecution has"·. l failed to prove that';the-h. : also help th. i:lt the. re. w~s. rio $V! d~nce; led . iri to: sbow:that'appellanh·· Maf1Lahd accu'sed'nq.. 2,Moyyasamy,:were the clese associateisi:> and tnaJ acc. vsed . M6yyas~m. ~:had:? et-upJ/'Je;present,appella'f1f. 0 ,-! to c~mhji(tbe rT)Urder: ot. tn. e. •~i;eaSed· Tht. is, the. High Courtcs ' held th~f(tfere lf)la. s,nothing to jink thf? ·accused Moyyasamywith· -: · :r the'. crim'e . partic'ularly becs:ius,e there c0uld. be. no moiiv. e' :,; sugg'e,~l,~c{t~, i(Jtie Jjigh Q~o'u/t ~lso;disbelj§ve,o the discovery, Y1i matje'by ac9~sed Moyyasamy,of;the l;>,lq9d stai,rlecl. clothes·on•· the lfrounWih'at the. di~_cove,ry Vyal? ;be! §lted,[orJhese reasons. ,,, , : accusediMoy,yasainy '4'aS acquitted. HolA(eVE)fl the. High Court;;::-:; . •·• , .. C: '. - - . - . ~ ·. '\. , ' .. ' - ·- .. - . .

' disml~~,ed t. he appeal in so f~r . as ,,tJ;le, p~e:s€lnt appetlant is . ,, " concerned: ,. ' ,. . .. ,.... . ·~.. ' :.. ~: ·2h~-llenging the 'judgm~hf. ~f thed'iigh' Court, ie~med•. •:F'. -:i ~ counsel points. out that firstly. there coi. Ild be! no m6tfve whatsoever/• ·' on th'e part. of the appellant. Outatrention was in'i1itei:l to thefindin'g... that there was· no thick relationship between the two accused' . persons SQ that the ·present appeHant cduld take't1p the cause of the acquitted accused,M6yy " ·. : ~- . -\ 13. There can be no dispute that deceased Sivakumar had died homicidal death. The question . is whether the prosecution has been able to connectthe present appellant with· the crime? The case undoubtedly depends upon circumstantial evidence. It will be therefore our task to examine all the circumstances relied upon by the courts below. 14. Though the Trial Court has discussed nine circumstances, the High Court has not discussed are the circumstances in seriatum.

~ 15. The firsfcircumstance held by the High Court against the appellant is that the Koduval (M. 0. 18) was found with sticking hair and It la proved that the scalp hair of the deceased was found similar to the hair sticking to the Koduval and that M. Os 15, 1E~ and 17 were the clothes found with strained blood. In our opinion, this circumstance by itself Is of no consequence unless those material objects are connected with appellant. . + - 16. An Interesting statement was made by the High Court suggesting tha' if the appellant took the deceased at 6. 00 p. m. on 24. 11. 1996 to his house where the deceased was done away with, the burden shifted on the first accused to show how the de~ased died In his house. In our opinion, this la not the correct position of law. In f? rder to hold this circumatar,ce, the High Court. . G ·has recorded the finding that the house belonged to the present . -,. · appellant. The appellaiit hactvery clearly stated In his examination under Section 313 Cr. P.

C. that the house did not belong to his father and that it was lying vacant and nobody had occupied it. In our opinion, atleast from the evidence on record, it cannot be .. A· concluded that tHe house belonged to the a·ppellant. There is. ho · evidence worth the nahie feiad by the prosecution to suggest the exclusive ownership or the possession of the house belonged to the appellant. B. oth the courts have proceeded on the presumption that the house was owned or possessed exclusively -B by the·appellant. Much could have been done to establish its ownership by filing the revenue record of that house. No such documentary evidence was collected by the prosecution. The t- High court has not _qiscLJssed this aspect of exclusive ownership and poss~ssion at all~and has proceeded on the presumption tHat tbe hou~e belopg. ~d'to f;lnd was possessed by th! =! a_ppella,nt herein. ·. · · . . _ c • • 17. The Panch witness P. W.

6- Ganesan, though had referred to the said house as the house of' the appellant, has clearly admitted in his cross-examination that he did not know as to in whose name stood the said house. It is very significant to note that he has lastly given the admission to the effect "to say that (blood stained) that house is not Mani's house and it was built by Mani's father, cannot be objected". This witness was a Village Administrative Officer through whom the investigating officer could have easily obtaineci the records of this house. Unfortunately, that was not done. ' ' 18. The only other evidence in this . behalf is that of F? W·14 Karunakaran who was_ one of the Investigating Officer. He hcts never asserted that the concerned house \l\(CI$ appellant's house --t though he, in his examlnation-in-chief refer~ed to that house as Mani's house. He had to admit in his cross examination that he 'did not interrogate any other resid~nts residing near Andiammal's house.

'He also had admitted that he had never questioned the Village Administrative Officer as to in whos_e n~me was the said house. Though this witness coll)mOf1ly referred to that house·as Mani's house. it is difficult to l;iold that the prosecution had establi_shed the exclusive ownf? rship and possession of that hquse as against the appellant.. 19 The High Court has undoubtedly referred to the written MANI v. STATE OF TAMIL NADU~:" ·.. statement. Jiled by the,,accused under Section 313 Cr~P. C. out ·A . has chosen,not:to:discuss the matter further. It is ther'E! fore difficult -to hold that the said house where allegedly thehfood stalnswere found belonged to the appellant. · · •· . - · · ' ' . 20. Same and similar is the story rega. rding the alleged · discovery. Both the vyitnesses namely'P. W: 8 Pilip Kumar and· · P. VV. ~ Loganath}1r;i t)aq turned. hostil~. Th~y c,om. pl13t~ly disowhe. cfthe'ptoseci.. Jtion case that the appellantwas examined by th. e. Inspect,bri3ijp.

qurirg',that ex~·m0~fio. Q.. ',¥~n'i ~as enq'0ired and he' g~v,~ ~bnfessi. ~r1al:statem~,~. t. ~nd tl;l,~J . he would, s~ow 1 the'hidden clothes which he worn at theti01e of the incident and . also ttie k6ciuva1 which was"ui~cf ~t ih~:Hme of the incici~nt. ·they only ad::~pted that'they. had signe. d. lhe said statement. Now·, wtienwe consider the evidence regartjing the discoyery, a V~rY iit,iportant circumstance was missed by both the,~r)al. Cq,~rt ,... . as well as oy the High 'Court about the place where the articles '·D · ·were found. P. Vv. 15 Govindan who was the Investigating Officer in respect of th. is discovery deposed that the accused Mani had made. vplun. a,. Y confess,io'n' statement which he had recorded in ·presen. ce of the two witnessE! i;. namelyP,W. 8- Dilip KJmar and 'l. \5ganf! th~r(VVe are aJ. re~dy $een that 'both the witnesse. s had complet~ly_disowned the stouts There. is no cross examination worth t~e ~,ame to these wiJne~sE! S py the pyblic prosecutor.

Both these. witnesses were . chance witn. essep, they being the regular visitors to the police 'station,. and it appears that they Were rrierely used by the investigating agency. In fact there is ;-:· . no'explanation on hbw Jhese two witness. es reached +fie police station at all. P. W. 15'Govinda·n did assert that. he recovered :~rie bl'o6d stained rose colour'full sleeve sh. irt blood stained . greer coloure'd sW,eater, blo. od stained lμngl h~~lrig '. ]'28n red and black.. stripes and,qne)lood stain13cl kociuval ;,J'. h human " .!. · . '· - - ', ,J. -J_ ,, ''••' •. • u hair produced by the accused at 11. 30 a m. near :he sloppy . rock on ! he way to Chinnammal Coffee Estate in Salaipara village. Accordingly, the witness asserts th at he r. ecovered M. Os 15, 16, 17 and 18 under ExhibiFP:26 Mahazar. Now. ,unfortunately, the High Court has missed avery important of f'i evidence in his cross examination where the witness very specifical.

ly admitted that the material objects said to have been produced by Accused No. 1and Accused No. 2were recovered about 300 feet away from the dead body of Sivakumar. Now, it is nobody's case that at the time the discovery was made by accused no. 1, accused no. 2 also made certain discoveries. Therefore, the witness was not certain as to who made the discovery. This is apart from the fact that discovery admittedly · was made from 300 feet away from the dead body. of Sivakumar and after Sivakumar's body was inspected by P. W. 14 as early as on 25. 11. 1996. It would be impossible to believe that the . inspector did not search the nearby Spots and that all the articles would remain in open unguarded till 6th December, 1996 when the discovery had allegedly been made. This was nothing but a farce of discovery and could never have been accepted . particularly because all the discovered articles w~re lying bare· 0 . open barely 300 feet away from the body of ttie deceased Sivakumar.

Even this witness had to admit that he neverenquired as to in whose name the house of Mani stand. He claims that P. W. 14. had. done the same whereas P. W. 14 is completely silent about such investigation. It is, therefore, obvious this discovery could have never been accepted by both the courts below & both the court have completely ignored this vital admission. It need not be stated that where the discovery ofthe relevant articles have been made from the open ground though under the bush, that too after more than 1Odays of the Incident, such discovery would be without any credence. It does not stand to any reasons that the concerned Investigating officer did not even bother to look hither and thither when the dead body was found. We are, therefore, not prepared to accept such kind of farcical discovery which has been relied by the courts below without even taking Into consideration the vital facts which we have shown above. 21.

The discovery Is a weak kind of evidence and cannot be wholly relied upon on and conviction In such aserious matter cannot be based upon the discovery. Once the discovery fall•, 'H there would be llterally nothing which would 1upport the -i prosecution case. We have already held that the prosecution has failed to prove that the house where alleged blood stains were found belonged exclusively or was possessed exclusively by the appellant, we have further pointed out that the discovery was absolutely farcical. The. re is one other very relevant factor ignored by both the courts that the prosecution never made any attempts to prove that the Clothes belonged to the appellants. There is literally no evidence to suggest anything to that effect. -. / Therefore, even if we accept the discovery, it does not take us anywhere near the crime. Both the Courts below have ignored this very important aspect. Once these two important . \ circumstances are disbelieved, th.

ere is nothing which would remain to support the prosecution theory. We also fail to understand the finding of the High Court in respect of the motive. In ou'r opinion, there was no motive whatsoever much less entertainable by the pcesent appellant. He had nothing to do with the straying cattle nor was he a party to subsequent altercation between P. W. 1 Arunachalam and the accused No. 2 + Moyyasamy.. Lastly, there. is nothing on record to show that he was a henchman set up to take revenge by accused no. 2 Moyyasamy and he was set up by the accused no. 1to revenge. We also did not understand that if there was no motive for Moyyasamy, how could there be any motive entertainable by the appellant. Therefore, even for that circumstance has to go. 22. Even if we accept that the Koduval and the alleged . ~ clothes, i. e. the material object nos. 15-18 had the blood stains that does not connect the appellant with the crime. 23.

The only other circumstance left with is that Mani called Sivakumar at 6 O'clock and took him away in the absence of any ot~er clinching circumstances, this circumstance by itself cannot lead to the only conclusion that Mani murdered Sivakumar. -.. , Therefore, we have to ignore that circumstance. 24. Lastly, the Trial Court has obviously committed an error in suggesting that the appellant was absconding and that he was surrendered before the Court on 06. 12. 1996. It is mentioned in sub- para 6 of the judgment of the Trial Court of para 28. We are afraid this is a factual mistake because it has come in the ~vidence of the prosecution witnesses that the accused had surrendered before the Magistrate much earlier to that, i. e. on the very next day or so and that it took the investigating officer almost 10 days to obtain his custody. That has clearly come in the evidence of P. W. 14. 25. We are also not impressed by the evidence of P. W.

1 Arunachalam who had though found the corpse at night or atleast had realized that something unusual had happened, did not bother to go till next day at 10 O'clock for reporting the matter. We cannot ignore the evidence of P. W. 5 Chinamal in whose field the body was found. She had specifically claimed that this fact was known to P. W. 1 Arunachalam. Having seen all the evidence and having considered both the judgments very carefully, we are of the clear opinion that this cannot be a case where the prosecution has proved the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubts. We would th3refore accept the plea i of the accused raised by the defence counsel that this is clearly case for benetit cf doubt. We would therefore choose to grant the benefit of doubt to the accused holding that the prosecution has not been able to prove its case beyond the reasonable doubt. We therefore, allow the appeal. Accordingly the appeal is allowed. Impugned Judgments and conviction are set aside.

The accused be set to liberty forthwith unless required in any other case. K. K. T. Appeal allowed.