{"id":272437,"date":"2022-08-27T10:30:51","date_gmt":"2022-08-27T05:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/?p=272437"},"modified":"2022-08-27T10:30:51","modified_gmt":"2022-08-27T05:00:51","slug":"murder-by-poisoning-circumstantial-evidence-acquittal-benefit-of-doubt-legal-news-legal-reseach-section-302-ipc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2022\/08\/27\/murder-by-poisoning-circumstantial-evidence-acquittal-benefit-of-doubt-legal-news-legal-reseach-section-302-ipc\/","title":{"rendered":"Manipulated laboratory report, broken links of evidence; Supreme Court reverses concurrent findings of Courts below to acquit a murder accused"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Supreme Court<\/span>: The Division Bench of Hemant Gupta and Vikram Nath*<\/span>, JJ., reversed the impugned judgments of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and the Trial Court of convicting the appellant for murder on the basis of circumstantial evidence.<\/p>\n

Noting that there were many broken links in the chain of evidence and the prosecution could not prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. Casting a doubt on the prosecution version, the Court remarked,<\/p>\n

\u201cThe milk which is said to be adulterated with the poison was taken out from the refrigerator, transferred into a pan for boiling, and thereafter given to the deceased. If it actually had organophosphorus in it the smell would have filled up the room. The deceased being a healthy woman aged 45 years would not have consumed it if the pungent smell was coming from the milk. Even the informant did not sense any foul smell from the milk while boiling it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Factual Matrix<\/p>\n

The prosecution case was that one Kuldeep Kaur, wife of the informant died after consuming the milk bought from the appellant, Rajbir Singh. The informant submitted that the appellant had borrowed Rs. 1 lakh from him and he and his wife were demanding that money from him. Therefore, on account of a grudge, he poisoned the milk in order to eliminate his family.<\/p>\n

The Trial Court held that the prosecution had proved the death was caused by poisoning and that there was a motive to commit the said offence in order to save the appellant from returning the loan of Rs. 1 lakh taken from the informant. The Trial Court noted that the chemical analysis of the boiled milk consumed by the deceased, the unboiled milk, the container 18 in which the milk was kept, and the glass in which the milk was tendered, all contained organophosphorus, the poisonous substance. The second chemical report also reflected that there was the same substance organophosphorus in the parts of the organs (viscera) of the deceased sent for analysis.<\/p>\n

Hence, the Trial Court convicted the appellant under Section 302<\/a> of Penal Code 1860<\/a> and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and pay a fine of Rs.1,000. In appeal, the Punjab & Haryana High Court upheld the conviction.<\/p>\n

Broken Chain of Evidence<\/p>\n

The Court noted that the Trial Court proceeded on the premise that the appellant had not denied the execution of the pronote while discussing the motive which was not correct as the appellant in his statement under section 313<\/a> CrPC<\/a> had specifically denied not only borrowing of the money but also that he never executed the pronote.<\/p>\n

Further, the Trial Court did not take into consideration the time gap from the alleged time of collecting the milk from the appellant to the time it was administered and further the time the samples were collected. It also did not give any importance to the post-mortem report and the statement of Dr. Avtar Singh who had conducted the autopsy.<\/p>\n

Considering the aforementioned, the Court culled out the following factors to rule that both the courts below committed an error in recording conviction:<\/p>\n