Madhya Pradesh High Court
The State Of Madhya Pradesh vs Shyam Kumar on 24 April, 2025
Author: Atul Sreedharan
Bench: Atul Sreedharan, Anuradha Shukla
NEUTRAL CITATION NO. 2025:MPHC-JBP:18644
1 MCRC-47912-2018
IN THE HIGH COURT OF MADHYA PRADESH
AT JABALPUR
BEFORE
HON'BLE SHRI JUSTICE ATUL SREEDHARAN
&
HON'BLE SMT. JUSTICE ANURADHA SHUKLA
ON THE 24th OF APRIL, 2025
MISC. CRIMINAL CASE No. 47912 of 2018
THE STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH
Versus
SHYAM KUMAR
Appearance:
Shri Ajay Tamrakar - Government Advocate for applicant/State.
ORDER
Per: Justice Atul Sreedharan
The present petition for leave to appeal has been filed by the
applicant/State, which is aggrieved by the judgment of acquittal recorded on
05.10.2018 by the Court of learned First Additional Sessions Judge, Dindori
in S.T. No.28/2017.
2. The respondent was charged with the murder of the deceased whose
name is Suraj Bai and also for causing disappearance of evidence. In other
words, he was charged for an offence under Section 302 read with section
201 of IPC. The motive for the murder was a suspicion in the mind of the
respondent that the deceased was practicing black magic on account of which
his children used to fall ill. There are no eye witnesses and last seen in this
case.
3. The case of the prosecution is that the deceased went to the Jungle
NEUTRAL CITATION NO. 2025:MPHC-JBP:18644
2 MCRC-47912-2018
on 19.01.2017 at 9:00 A.M. and did not return. On 20.01.2017, the body of
the deceased was recovered by Leela Bai (PW/1), who is the mother of the
deceased. The inquest proceedings were initiated on 21.01.2017 and the body
was taken into custody on the same day. The body was also taken into
possession by the Police and sent for postmortem on 21.01.2017 and the
investigation of the place of occurrence revealed the presence of a button.
The respondent was taken into custody on 22.01.2017, on account of an
apprehension voiced by PW/1 that the respondent may have murdered the
deceased on account of a suspicion that the deceased was practicing black
magic. The 27 memorandum of the respondent was recorded at 15:00 hours,
which led to the recovery of a Tangi, the alleged weapon used in the offence.
He was arrested on 22.01.2017 itself at 16:00 hours. The postmortem report
reveals that the deceased died on account of the incised injury on her neck
and the FSL report Ex. P/21 records a finding of blood on the blade of Tangi
seized at the behest of respondent, but the same has not been identified as
human blood. The shirt worn by the applicant was also taken into custody at
the time of his arrest and it is the case of the prosecution that the button
which was found at the scene of occurrence was from the shirt worn by the
applicant at the time of committing the crime, which he was allegedly
wearing at the time of his apprehension by the Police. The FSL report, with
regard to the button Ex.P/22, goes to reveal that there were variations in the
dimensions of all the buttons of the shirt.
4. Thus, this Court finds that the only three pieces of evidence which
the State insist that the learned trial Court did not take into consideration are
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3 MCRC-47912-2018
the Tangi, shirt worn by the accused and the recovery of the button at the
scene of occurrence.
5. As regards the recovery of the button at the scene of occurrence,
when the same is seen with the findings of the FSL, it appears that even the
other buttons on the shirt worn by the applicant, were not of identical
dimensions. Further, the absence of human blood on the blade of the Tangi
coupled with the fact that there are no eyewitnesses to the offence or even a
witness to last seen together, it is not possible to convict the appellant only
on account of recovery of button from the scene of occurrence.
6. Under the circumstances, this Court finds that there is no perversity
in the judgment passed by the learned Court below and that the acquittal has
correctly been recorded. Therefore, the petition for grant of leave to appeal is
dismissed.
(ATUL SREEDHARAN) (ANURADHA SHUKLA)
JUDGE JUDGE
b
