TAHER VAJIYUDDIN RANGWALA Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants are the accused who were alleged to have murdered their friend; found drowned in a river. The prosecution case was that the deceased was taken from his house in the early morning, of 17/7/2006, on the pretext of going to Ankleshwar to play volleyball. The deceased did not return by evening, and his family started searching for him. When A-2 was contacted by his wife, A-2 allegedly told her that he was in a picture house watching a movie. PW14 informed PW-12 about the clothes found on the banks of a river, which were identified by him as belonging to his brother. Later, A-1 and A-2 who had taken the deceased in the morning, came to the house of the deceased voluntarily. They were questioned and later, inside a car, as stated by PW-12, the brother of the deceased, the accused confessed that they had gone swimming in the river and the deceased accidentally drowned. In panic, they fled from the spot and went for a movie. The villagers gathered at the riverbank and searched for the deceased, whose clothes and other belongings were found on the banks. The body was not recovered till nightfall and the rescue party disbursed. Later, on the next morning, the body was recovered and post-mortem was conducted, which showed the victim having died of 'Asphyxia due to drowning '. The accusation against the appellants herein; alleging a motive against both the accused, was raised by the First Information Statement on 3/11/2006, which was registered as an FIR, produced as Annexure A-6.

(2.) The prosecution went to trial with 20 witnesses. The circumstances put forth was motive, last seen together theory, presence of accused near the scene of occurrence, homicidal death, the silence of the accused, conduct of the accused; specifically of lying to the sister of the deceased that they had dropped him at Sahra Darwaja, and admissions made in the bail application.

(3.) The Trial Court convicted both the accused under Ss. 302, 34 and 201 read with Sec. 120B of the Indian Penal Code. Under Sec. 302, life imprisonment was imposed with a fine of Rs.5,000.00 and default sentence of rigorous imprisonment (RI) for one year. Under Sec. 120B and Sec. 201 substantive sentences of RI of five years and two years were imposed with fine of Rs.2,000.00 and Rs.1,000.00, with a default sentence of RI of 2 months each, on both counts. The High Court confirmed the conviction of the Trial Court in appeal.