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Suresh and Anr. v. State of Haryana

Criminal Appeal · 2018 INSC 734Decided 21 Aug 2018
Criminal Appeal No. 1458 of 2012
Justice N.V. Ramana · Justice Mohan M. Shantanagoudar

Background

After a bitterly contested village panchayat election in Haryana in 1994 that triggered gunfire between rival factions, one Chander Bhan (an election agent for the losing candidate) was later found shot, and died at a hospital. Two different and conflicting versions of events emerged: one from an accused who claimed the winning candidate's supporters shot Chander Bhan, and another, pieced together by police investigation and an extra-judicial confession, suggesting the appellants themselves had killed him in a staged plot to falsely frame their rivals. The case involved two connected criminal appeals arising out of the same incident: one by the convicted accused (Suresh and others) and one by a person whom the trial court had acquitted (Sobhat Singh, challenging that acquittal).

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found serious investigative deficiencies and inconsistencies in the prosecution's case against Suresh and the other appellants in Criminal Appeal Nos. 1445-1446 of 2012, holding that the chain of circumstances and the extra-judicial confession did not establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt, and therefore allowed their appeal and set aside their conviction, directing their release. However, in the connected Criminal Appeal No. 1458 of 2012 concerning Dharambir, Umed Singh, and Dharampal, the Court found the trial court's reasoning credible and dismissed that appeal, declining to disturb the outcome in that separate matter.

Lesson Learnt

Even where there is a death and public interest in punishing someone, courts will not convict on a weak chain of circumstantial evidence or an unreliable extra-judicial confession: the prosecution must establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt, and investigative lapses can tip the scale in the accused's favour.

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

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