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Mihir Gope Etc. v. The State of Jharkhand

Criminal Appeal · 2021 INSC 11Decided 8 Jan 2021
Criminal Appeal Nos. 22-23 of 2021
Justice N.V. Ramana · Justice Surya Kant · Justice Aniruddha Bose

Background

A land dispute over construction of a hut led to a violent clash in Jharkhand in 2005 in which two men, Anil and Jatu, died of head injuries, and others were injured. The trial court convicted the two appellants (sons of the main accused, Manohar) along with their father and sister-in-law for murder and other offences, and the Jharkhand High Court upheld the convictions of the appellants while acquitting the sister-in-law. The appellants challenged their convictions before the Supreme Court, arguing that the eyewitness accounts of their specific role in the fatal assaults were inconsistent and exaggerated.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found that while the father, Manohar, was consistently identified by all eyewitnesses as having struck the fatal blows with an iron rod, the accounts implicating the two appellant-sons in the killings were inconsistent, exaggerated and did not match the actual number and nature of injuries found by the medical witnesses. It therefore set aside their convictions for murder (Section 302) and for attempt to murder and causing grievous hurt, holding the prosecution had not proved beyond reasonable doubt that they shared a common intention with their father to kill. However, based on reliable eyewitness testimony, it convicted them instead for voluntarily causing simple hurt (Section 324 IPC), sentencing each to three years' rigorous imprisonment, and ordered their release if that term had already been served.

Lesson Learnt

A conviction for murder requires the prosecution to prove each accused's specific individual role and shared intention beyond reasonable doubt: generalised or inconsistent eyewitness testimony implicating multiple accused equally in a group assault cannot, by itself, sustain the most serious charges against everyone involved, even where the overall incident and some participants' guilt are clearly established.

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

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