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The State of Maharashtra v. Sanvlo Naik

Criminal Appeal · 2017 INSC 865Decided 7 Sept 2017
Criminal Appeal Nos. 1610-1611 of 2007
Justice Ranjan Gogoi · Justice Navin Sinha

Background

Two police officers (a Police Inspector and a Police Constable of Margao Town Police Station, Goa) apprehended a suspect late at night in May 1994 following a minor scuffle during arrest; the suspect was brought to the station in good physical condition per a witness constable's testimony, held in the officers' presence, and later found dead, having been "brought dead" to hospital around 2:40 a.m. The officers had fudged the police General Diary Register and raised false pleas of alibi to cover their involvement. Of seven accused originally charged with murder (Section 302/34 IPC), all were acquitted of that charge (an acquittal the State chose not to appeal), but two of them were convicted of the lesser offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder (Section 304 Part II/34 IPC) and given short sentences. The Bombay High Court overturned even that conviction and fully acquitted them, prompting the CBI's appeal to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court confined itself strictly to the Section 304 Part II conviction (expressly declining to revisit the unappealed Section 302 acquittal) and, reviewing the evidence of multiple police witnesses placing the deceased in the accused officers' custody shortly before his death, along with the falsified diary entries and false alibi pleas, found the High Court was wrong to acquit. It restored the conviction of both accused under Section 304 Part II read with Section 34 IPC, and, noting their status as police personnel who had a duty to act lawfully, that the death occurred in custody, and that they had fabricated records and a false alibi to cover it up, enhanced their sentence to the statutory maximum of ten years' rigorous imprisonment, directing them to surrender immediately.

Lesson Learnt

Police personnel accused of causing a death in custody face heightened scrutiny and the maximum permissible sentence where the evidence shows cover-up conduct such as falsified records or a false alibi; the Supreme Court's appellate power under Article 136 extends to overturning a High Court's acquittal and imposing the maximum sentence where the evidence clearly supports guilt.

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

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