Himachal Pradesh High Court: Anoop Chitkara, J., dismissed an appeal filed to challenge the acquittal of the respondents-accused, for causing simple hurt and wrongful restraint. The appellant-State had come up before this Court seeking the conviction of accused, by filing the Criminal Appeal under Section 378 of the CrPC.
An FIR was filed by the complainant alleging that she was a farmer and while she was lopping leaves from her compound, Accused 1 and Accused 2, who was carrying a bamboo stick obstructed her from lopping the leaves and claimed that the land belonged to her. On the suspicion that the accused was going to beat her, she ran to her house and requested them that she did not want to quarrel and if the compound fell on their land then they could go for demarcation and if the land was found belonging to them then she would vacate her possession but the accused entered the house and started beating her with sticks. Her mother in law tried to stop the accused on which they started beating her also due to which she suffered several injuries. The medical examination of the complainant and the mother in law was conducted and the sticks were recovered from the accused and the trial court had framed charges under Sections 451 and 323 both read with 34 of Penal Code. The accused had denied all the offences but had not produced any evidence in their defense. The complainant during the cross-examination had admitted to the fact that a civil case was going on between them since 3 years, she also admitted later that at the time of the quarrel Balwant Singh, her daughter, two sons, her mother-in-law and members of the family of accused were also present The JMIC had acquitted both the accused of all the charges thus the instant appeal.
The Court while dismissing the appeal explained that the judgment of the trial court was a well-reasoned Judgment and was based on correct, complete and proper appreciation of evidence provided by the sole independent witness of the case who was the neighbor of the parties and he had stated that the accused Nirmala Devi was in his house and Seema Devi was in her own house. [State of H.P. v. Nirmala Devi, 2020 SCC OnLine HP 31, decided on 03-01-2020]
