TMI Blog1973 (11) TMI 100X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e order of acquittal. 2. The appellant was married to Lata, sister of deceased Narayan, in 1957. Towards the beginning of 1967 Lata came to Bombay and was staying with her parents at Bhandup. Appellant wanted Lata to go back to him and that led to disputes between him and the deceased. It is alleged that about 5.30 p.m. on May 12, 1967, the appellant stabbed Narayan while the latter was sitting in a shop called Regal Stores owned by one Ramnath Aurora. Narayan died on his way to the hospital and it was a week later that the appellant was arrested at Rhishikesh. 3. Denying that he had committed the murder of Narayan the appellant contended that he was at Kharda district Ahmednagar, on the date of the incident and that a few days therea ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ven by the court below in support of its order of acquittal but it must express its reasons in its judgment which led it to hold that the acquittal is not justified. Following this decision, this Court in Ramobhupala Reddy and Ors. v. State of Andhra Pradesh held that to the tests laid down in Sanwant Singh's case may be added another that the appellate court must bear in mind the fact that the trial court had the benefit of seeing the witnesses in the witness box and the presumption of innocence is not weakened by the order of acquittal. Therefore, if two reasonable conclusions can be reached on the basis of the evidence on record, the appellate court should not disturb the findings of the trial court . If this additional test is appl ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... and Ramnath lent a helping hand by deposing accordingly in his examination in-Chief. He was, however, driven to admit under the stress of cross-examination that his statement was typed at the police station, which in the light of other evidence would mean that the statement was so typed at about 9 30 p.m. Ramnath found it hard to riggle out of the impasse which he had created by making irreconcilable statements on an important aspect of the case and the best he could do was to say that the statement which he made in his shop between 6 and 6.30 p.m. was taken down in hand while the one at the police station was typed out. Even as Ramnath was offering this explanation in the witness box, the learned public prosecutor intervened to say that on ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... o visualise what must have happened . S.I. Khairnath does not say in his evidence that he made any notes after interrogating Ramnath at the scene of offence. It must therefore follow either that Ramnath's statement was recorded in the shop but that statement was suppressed or in the alternative that his statement was recorded for the first time a few hours later at the police station. Before he was taken to the police station he had met a host of relatives of the deceased and his own evidence shows that he had some familiarity with them. There were disputes between Narayan and the members of his family on the one hand and the appellant on the other. On the record of the case is a complaint (Ex. 15) made by Laxmibai, the wife of Narayan ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ol going girl and the explanation offered by her does not appear to be absurd or ridiculous. Lata, the other sister of Narayan and the wife of the appellant, also stated in her evidence that the appellant had never stayed with Narayan in May, 1967. The High Court over-came the difficulty arising out of Lata's evidence by saying that she was trying to save her husband after having lost her brother. We are unable to find any justification for the finding that Lata was trying to save her husband. She has spoken without reservation about the enmity between her husband and her brother and she has also deposed that Ramnath had shouted from his shop that her husband had caused a knife injury and had run away. 11. Bhanushali Parpia went to ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ted him the very same evening without knowing his true name and address. His evidence that he chased the appellant but never shouted during the pursuit is too artificial to be accepted. He introduced in his evidence the episode of chasing for he wanted to lay the foundation for an opportunity to identify the appellant. The High Court has attached importance to the fact that Bhanushali and Ramnath had identified the appellant in the identification parade. The learned trial Judge rejected the evidence in regard to the identification because Bhanushali admitted that he and Ramnath were able to see the parade-room from where they were sitting. If they could see the parade-room they would be in a position to see the appellant being taken to that ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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