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Farida Begum v. State of Uttarakhand

Criminal Appeal · 2018 INSC 1146Decided 4 Dec 2018
Criminal Appeal No. 1560 of 2013
Justice N.V. Ramana · Justice Mohan M. Shantanagoudar · Justice M.R. Shah

Background

In 1999, a group of persons allegedly entered a house in Jaspur, Uttarakhand, and murdered Mukhtar Ahmed, a local political rival. The prosecution's case was that Farida Begum, then Chairman of the local Nagar Palika (municipality), exhorted her companions to "finish" the deceased over a political dispute (a no-confidence motion and an election challenge), after which other accused shot him. The trial court convicted several accused: Farida Begum, Mohd. Ashraf, Raees Ahmed, Raees Ahmed @ Satna, Mohd. Nasim @ Churti, and Idrish: for murder and related offences, and the High Court of Uttarakhand upheld the convictions of Farida Begum (A1), Mohd. Ashraf (A2), Raees Ahmed (A4), and Raees Ahmed @ Satna (A5), while acquitting two other co-accused (A6 and A7) on benefit of doubt. Farida Begum, Mohd. Ashraf, and Raees Ahmed @ Satna appealed their convictions to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court re-appreciated the evidence and upheld the convictions of Farida Begum and Mohd. Ashraf, finding their presence at the scene and their roles (exhortation to kill, and firing the fatal shot, respectively) established beyond doubt through consistent eyewitness testimony (PWs 1 and 2) that survived cross-examination, and rejecting the defence's claim of no electricity supply at the time (that defence witness's evidence was found to be concocted and tampered with). However, for Raees Ahmed @ Satna (A5), the Court found no firearm or bullet was ever recovered to corroborate the claim that he fired a (missed) shot, and held he was entitled to acquittal on the same benefit-of-doubt ground that the High Court had already used to acquit two other co-accused in near-identical circumstances. The Court then, on its own initiative (suo motu), extended the same benefit of doubt to Raees Ahmed (A4) as well, even though he had not himself filed an appeal, since his situation was legally indistinguishable from A5's. The appeals of Farida Begum and Mohd. Ashraf were dismissed and their convictions/sentences confirmed (with Farida Begum's bail cancelled and surrender directed), while the appeal of Raees Ahmed @ Satna was allowed and both he and the non-appealing Raees Ahmed were acquitted and ordered released.

Lesson Learnt

A conviction cannot rest on an unproven allegation that an accused fired a weapon if no firearm, bullet, or forensic evidence is ever recovered to support it, and an appellate court can extend the benefit of such a finding even to a co-accused who never filed an appeal, if their situation is identical to someone who did.

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

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