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Shantanu Sitaram @ Anil Divekar v. The State of Maharashtra

Criminal Appeal · 2017 INSC 981Decided 22 Sept 2017
Criminal Appeal No. 724 of 2012
Justice A.K. Sikri · Justice Ashok Bhushan

Background

The appellant's wife, Supriya, was found dead from strangulation after the appellant took her and their infant daughter for an evening car ride in December 2000; he later told a passerby that the family had been robbed and assaulted by unknown persons, a version both the trial court and the Bombay High Court disbelieved. Based on recovered stolen jewellery and other items traced to two co-accused who were shown to be the appellant's associates, the trial court convicted all three accused of murder, destruction of evidence, and criminal conspiracy, sentencing them to life imprisonment; the High Court upheld the convictions (though it had acquitted them of the conspiracy charge). Only the appellant and one other accused pursued further appeals to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that an acquittal on the conspiracy charge (Section 120B) does not undermine a conviction for murder with common intention (Section 302 read with Section 34), since the two provisions rest on different elements. Reviewing the evidence, eyewitness testimony placing the appellant in the company of the co-accused before the crime, recovered jewellery and weapons traced through the co-accused, and medical evidence matching the ligature injuries to recovered rope, the Court found the appellant's "robbery by strangers" defence was rightly disbelieved by both courts below and that the chain of circumstantial evidence conclusively established guilt. It dismissed both appeals, upholding the convictions and sentences, and ordered the appellant (who had been on bail) to be taken into custody immediately.

Lesson Learnt

In a case built on circumstantial evidence, an accused's own implausible or unsupported explanation for the circumstances surrounding a crime can itself become a strong link in the chain of guilt, and being acquitted of a separate conspiracy charge does not automatically undo a conviction for the underlying murder where common intention is otherwise proved.

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

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