A division bench of Gujarat High Court comprising Hon’ble Justice A.Y. Kogje and M.R. Mengdey held that the failure of the prosecution to prove the identity of a dead body through DNA reports is not enough to acquit the accused, particularly in a case where the accused was charged with killing his own wife and where the remains of the body were discovered buried in his own residence.
The observation was made while granting a criminal miscellaneous application against the acquittal order of the respondent-accused by the Sessions Judge, under Section 302 (Punishment for Murder) and 201 (Causing disappearance of evidence of offense, or giving false information to screen offender) of the IPC, 1860.
Brief Facts:
This application was filed for grant of Leave to Appeal against the judgment and order of acquittal dated 18-11-2022 passed by the Court of Sessions Judge, Tapi at Vyara in Sessions Case No.8 of 2019, wherein the respondent-accused has been acquitted for the offence under Section 302, 201 of the I.P.C.
Contentions of the Applicant:
The learned Counsel for the applicant submitted that acquittal is based only on the ground that the dead body of the deceased was not identified on the basis of DNA report and therefore, the prosecution was not able to establish that the remains of the dead body recovered during the course of the investigation, was actually of deceased Kamlaben.
Observations of the Court:
Considering the aforesaid, this Court finds that this is a case where the respondent-accused was charged with the murder of his own wife and the subordinate Court has thoroughly disregarded the fact that during the course of the investigation, remains of the dead body in the skeleton form were found buried in the very residential premises of the respondent-accused. Therefore, in view of this Court, there was sufficient evidence of identifying the remains of the dead body of Kamlaben by the evidence of the son of the respondent-accused and Kamlaben on the basis of ornaments found on the remains of the dead body.
In the opinion of this Court, by considering the inability of the prosecution to establish the identity of the dead body on the basis of a DNA report, is not sufficient ground for acquittal.
The decision of the Court:
The Gujarat High Court, allowing the application, granted leave to the appeal. The court has also issued a warrant that allows the respondent-accused to be released on bail upon depositing a sum of five thousand rupees.
Case Title: State of Gujarat vs Sureshbhai Honjibhai Gamit
Coram: Hon’ble Justice A.Y. Kogje and M.R. Mengdey
Case no.: R/CRIMINAL MISC.APPLICATION NO. 3715 of 2023
Advocate for the Applicant: MS. C. M. SHAH, APP
Advocate for the Defendant: None
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