STATE OF GUJARAT Vs. AMITKUMAR PUNAMCHAND SHAH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant - State of Gujarat has preferred this appeal being aggrieved by the judgment and order of acquittal dated 17.08.1994, passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Vadodara, in Sessions Case No.172 of 1994, whereby all four respondents- original accused have been acquitted of the offences under Sections 120B, 498A, 302, 201 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 ('IPC' for short). Respondent No.1 is the husband of deceased Jagruti. Respondent No.2 is her mother-in-law. Respondent No.3 is the unmarried sister-in-law of the deceased and respondent No.4 is her married sister-in-law who, at the relevant point of time, had come to stay at her paternal house for her delivery.

(2.) The case of the prosecution, in brief, is that during the night of 14/15.11.1993, the respondents hatched a conspiracy to commit the murder of deceased Jagruti by throwing her from the fifth floor of Usha Kiran Building situated at Raopura, Vadodara and, thereafter, cremated the dead body at Village Eral, 80 kms from Vadodara, thereby destroying the evidence pertaining to her murder. It is further the case of the prosecution that the respondents were subjecting Jagruti to cruelty and had thereby committed the offence under Section 498A of the IPC. Further, all the accused persons, in pursuance of the above conspiracy, had thrown the deceased Jagruti from the window of the fifth floor and as a result of this, Jagruti had died. Further, the accused persons knowing or having reason to believe that the offence under Section 302 IPC has been committed, destroyed the clothes worn by Jagruti with an intention to destroy the evidence. They had cremated the dead body at Village Eral without conducting a Postmortem with the intent to screen the offenders from punishment.

(3.) The facts of the case that can be pieced together from the evidence on record are as below: