STATE OF U P Vs. MOHD IQRAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These appeals have been preferred by the State of U.P. against the judgment and order dated 25.04.2003 passed by the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad in Criminal Appeal Nos. 14 and 60 of 1981, reversing the judgment and order of the Sessions Court dated 20.12.1980 in Session Trial No. 382 of 1980 passed by the learned District Judge, Saharanpur, by which both the Respondents stood convicted under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (hereinafter called as Rs. IPC) and had been awarded life imprisonment.

(2.) The brief resume of the facts as emerging from the FIR and the evidence adduced by the parties is set forth:

(3.) Shri R.K. Gupta, learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the State of U.P., has submitted that the High Court committed an error in acquitting the Respondents without appreciating the facts on record. The trial court had convicted the Respondents on circumstantial evidence making clear cut observations that the chain of circumstances was complete; the said Respondents had been arrested from the place of occurrence; their presence was not likely to be there as they were not the residents of the area; there had been no theft or dacoity in the area. Rashmi, deceased, was strangulated with hands without the aid of any weapon. The High Court ordered acquittal on the basis that no weapon had been recovered and probably Suresh Kumar, who had been acquitted by the trial court had committed the murder after committing rape on the deceased, though the trial court had recorded a finding that there had been no violence with the body of the deceased even prior to her strangulation. The High Court has placed reliance on inadmissible evidence which is not permissible in law. The judgment and order of the High Court is liable to be set aside and the appeals deserve to be allowed.