TMI Blog2011 (4) TMI 1529X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ng that the prosecution story had not been proved. The State of Bihar challenged this judgment in the High Court in appeal. The appeal was allowed Crl. Appeal No.2081/2009 by a Division Bench by its judgment dated 13th April, 2000 and the matter was remitted to the trial court to pass a fresh judgment on the evidence already adduced by the parties after hearing them denovo. The accused, however, approached this court in Criminal Appeal No.661 of 2001. The order of the High Court was set aside on the 12th May, 2001 and the matter was sent back with a direction that the High Court should itself go into the merits of the case and take a decision thereon. Pursuant to the orders of the Supreme Court, the matter was heard and the High Court, has ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rl. Appeal No.2081/2009 3. In the course of the hearing of this appeal, Mr. Sushil Kumar, the learned senior counsel for the appellant, has raised primarily four arguments. He has first submitted that the trial court had acquitted the accused and the High Court, therefore, should not have interfered in an appeal against acquittal as the circumstances of the case did not warrant interference. He has also pleaded that the FIR had apparently been lodged after a delay and the proceedings had been interpolated to cover up the fact of delay. It has been highlighted on this aspect that if the inquest report had been recorded after the registration of the FIR in which case the inquest report ought to have borne number of the FIR and as this de ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... by a trial court and if two views are Crl. Appeal No.2081/2009 possible, the one taken by the trial court should not be interfered with. On the contrary if it is found that the judgment of the trial court was perverse or against the evidence, it would be a travesty of justice if the High Court was to sit back and not interfere in the matter. We have gone through the judgment of the High Court and the Sessions Judge in the light of this broad principle and have accordingly re-examined the evidence in this background. 6. The first argument raised by Mr. Sushil Kumar is with regard to the delay in the lodging of the FIR, as the inquest report did not bear the FIR number. This argument however flows from a presumption that the FIR had been ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... l No.2081/2009 that process she had been present when the incident had been happened. She also identified the three accused in court when questioned. Her evidence also reveals that she had indeed tried to lift her son after he had been shot but from this assertion it cannot be inferred that her clothes would have been heavily blood stained. It is significant also that the statement of PW-4 is supported by the evidence of Hanif Khan-PW-2. It was this witness who had conveyed the information of the murder to the police station which had brought the police party to the place of incident. Hanif stated that as he returned home after seeing a film, he had seen the dead body of Sagir Hasan Siddique lying there and his mother crying on it. He al ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of a 313 statement and the implications for the prosecution, should there be some defect. It is, however, equally well-settled that an objection as to prejudice must be taken at the earliest [see Shobit Chamar Anr. Versus State of Bihar (1998 (3) SCC 455) ] and prejudice must be shown before a trial could be said to be invalidated [see in this connection Shivaji Sahebrao Bobade Versus State of Maharashtra (AIR 1973 SC 2622) and Santosh Kumar Singh Versus State through CBI (2010 (9) SCC 747) ]. No prejudice to the accused has been pointed out even this belated stage. It must therefore be presumed that no prejudice has in fact occurred. 11. We are therefore of the opinion that there is no merit in this appeal. It is accordingly dismis ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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