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Chaitu Gowala vs The State of Assam

Criminal Appeal · 2022 INSC 937Decided 7 Sept 2022
Criminal Appeal No. 325 of 2020
M.R. Shah · Krishna Murari

Background

The Managing Director of a company was killed by a mob during a wage dispute involving a large group of labourers, including the two appellants who were office-bearers (President and Secretary) of the workers' union. Of 70 accused originally tried, the trial court acquitted 57 and convicted 13, including the two appellants, sentencing them to life imprisonment for murder and related offences; the Gauhati High Court confirmed this conviction. The appellants argued there was no evidence that they personally attacked or instigated the mob to attack the deceased.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court examined the eyewitness testimony in detail and found nothing showing that the appellants caused any injury to the deceased or the police escort, or that they instigated the crowd: the evidence only showed they were present as union office-bearers, went into a meeting, came out, and said something to the crowd in their own language that was never actually proven to be an instigation. Since a conviction with the aid of Section 149 IPC (constructive liability for members of an unlawful assembly) requires some concrete evidence connecting the individual to the common object of violence, and no such evidence existed here, the Court held their conviction unsustainable. The convictions of the two appellants were quashed and they were acquitted and ordered released, while the convictions of the other accused (already confirmed and not before the Court) were left undisturbed.

Lesson Learnt

Mere presence at the scene of a mob crime, or holding a position of authority within a group involved in a confrontation, is not enough by itself to convict someone for the violence that followed. The prosecution must produce concrete evidence linking the specific accused to the act or to instigating it.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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