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Deepa @ Deep Chand & Anr. v. State of Haryana

Criminal Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Criminal Appeal No. 1265 of 2009)Decided 23 Mar 2015
Criminal Appeal No. 1265 of 2009
Justice Dipak Misra · Justice Uday Umesh Lalit

Background

The appellants, Deep Chand @ Deepa and his nephew Sukhbir Singh, were convicted of murdering Deepa's elderly brother Roop Chand, allegedly because Roop Chand's land was being cultivated by a relative (Randhir Singh) in a way the family resented. Two eyewitnesses, Randhir Singh and his son, testified to seeing the attack with an axe, a jaili (sickle-like blade) and a gandasa (chopper); a third assailant, a juvenile, was tried separately and acquitted. The Trial Court convicted the appellants and sentenced them to life imprisonment, and the Punjab and Haryana High Court upheld the conviction.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the acquittal of the juvenile co-accused in a separate trial did not help the appellants, since that acquittal itself had been based on the same eyewitness's testimony implicating the appellants specifically. Finding the eyewitness account truthful and consistent, and seeing no reason to disturb the concurrent findings of the Trial Court and High Court, the Court affirmed the conviction and dismissed the appeal. The appellants, who had been on bail since 2011, had their bail bonds cancelled and were directed to be taken into custody to serve out their sentence.

Lesson Learnt

An acquittal of a co-accused in a separate trial does not automatically benefit other accused persons in a related case, especially where the acquittal itself rested on evidence that continued to implicate them, and the Supreme Court will generally not disturb concurrent factual findings of guilt reached by two lower courts unless something has clearly gone wrong.

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

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