STATE OF GUJARAT Vs. BACHUBHAI GAMJIBHAI SANGOD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied with the judgment and order of acquittal dtd. 3/3/2021 passed by the learned 2 nd Addl. Sessions Judge, Dahod at Limkheda in Sessions Case No.47 of 2018 for the offences under Sec. 436 , 427 , 504 of IPC, the applicant - State of Gujarat has preferred this application to grant leave to appeal as provided under sec. 378(1)(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 ("the Code" for short) inter alia challenging the judgment and order of acquittal in favour of the respondent accused.

(2.) Briefly stated, the case of the prosecution is such that at 12:00 hrs. on 16/5/2018, the complainant and her younger son Sukrambhai were present at home at village Pav Chhapri, Tal: Dhanpur, Dist: Dahod. Adjacent to the home of the complainant, one house was filled up with household material and grass. At the time of incident, the complainant went out to see her got and at that time, the respondent accused started to give filthy abuses and said that her son Laxman has committed rape on his daughter-in-law Kapila and therefore, wife of son of the complainant should not stay in the village and will be driven out and after utterance, the respondent ignited match stick and thrown on the hut of Laxmanbhai and set it on fire. It is the case of the complainant that as she tried to catch hold of the respondent, he pushed her away and ran away towards his house and therefore, on hearing her shouts, the husband of the complainant, as well as her sons Sukrambhai and Varsingbhai and others came at the place of the offence. Within short time, as there was grass, it was not possible to extinguish the fire and before fire brigade could reach the spot, the household material as well as grass were damaged in fire. Therefore, the complainant lodged the complaint with regard to the incident before Dhanpur Police Station, which was registered as I - C.R. No.41 of 2018 for the offences under Sec. 436 , 427 , 504 of IPC.

(3.) In pursuance of the complaint lodged by the complainant, investigating agency recorded statements of the witnesses, collected relevant evidence in form of various Panchnamas and other expert evidence for the purpose of proving the offence. After having found material against the respondent accused, charge-sheet came to be filed in the Court of learned JMFC, Dhanpur. As said Court lacks jurisdiction to try the offence, it committed the case to the Sessions Court, Limkheda as provided under sec. 209 of the Code.