Himachal Pradesh High Court: A Single Judge Bench comprising of Chander Bhusan Barowalia, J., decided a criminal appeal filed by the State under Section 378 of CrPC challenging the order of acquittal of the accused persons passed by the trial court, wherein the said order was upheld holding that the prosecution failed to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt.
The accused persons were alleged to have grievously injured the complainant. They were tried for the offences punishable under Sections 341, 323, 325 along with Section 34 IPC. However, the trial court acquitted all the accused persons.
The High Court perused the record as well as submissions made on behalf of the parties. After considering the witness statements, the Court was of the view that the prosecution evidence was not sufficient to prove the case against the accused persons beyond reasonable doubt. There were material contradictions in the statements of the complainant himself. Also, there was un-explained delay of more than fifty five hours in lodging the complaint. Nothing material came out from the statements of the witnesses and the evidence collected and produced by the prosecution was weak. The Court observed that when the judgment of the trial court was neither perverse, nor suffered from any infirmity or based on misappreciation of evidence; reversal thereof by the High Court was not justified. The High Court held that the trial court rightly acquitted the accused persons on proper appreciation of evidence on record.
Accordingly, the judgment impugned in the instant appeal was upheld and the appeal was dismissed. [State of H.P. v. Gopal Singh, 2018 SCC OnLine HP 355, dated 2.4.2018]
