RATNABHAI DEHURBHAI SATIYA Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal under Sec. 374 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, is directed against the judgment and order of conviction dated 19.09.2011 passed by the learned 4th Additional Sessions Judge, Bhavnagar, in Sessions Case No. 110 of 2010. By the aforesaid judgment, the appellants­accused have been convicted of offences punishable under Sections 302, 364, 394, 201 read with Sections 120(B) and 34 of the Indian Penal Code.

(2.) The case of the prosecution is as under : -

(3.) At this stage, briefly, going back to the charge, it reveals that Section 302, an offence of murder is alleged to have been committed. Death is alleged to have been caused of the victim Balabhai by strangulating him with a clutch wire and burying his body thereafter. A word of caution therefore ,without any elaboration at this stage is that this is a case where a corpus is not found, and when homicidal death of the victim has to be proved only by circumstantial evidence. In cases where there is no direct evidence and particularly when the body is not found,it has been held by the Supreme Court in several decisions, which are referred to hereinafter that the circumstances must be of a clinching and definitive character unerringly leading to the inference that the victim concerned has met a homicidal death. Keeping these limitations in mind, the evidence on record, circumstantial in nature, needs to be appreciated.