GANESAN Vs. PARAMASIVAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The accused/respondents 1 and 2 herein, who were arrayed as A-1 and A-2 were charged and tried before the Assistant Sessions Court, Virudhunagar District in S.C.No.23 of 2014 for the offences under Section 306 and 498(A) of Indian Penal Code, and the trial Court found that the prosecution having not proved the case as against the accused/respondents 1 and 2 beyond reasonable doubt, acquitted the accused/respondents 1 and 2 herein. The petitioner/P.W.1 aggrieved by the said order of acquittal has preferred the present appeal. For the sake of convenience, the appellant petitioner is hereafter referred to as the de facto complainant and respondents 1 and 2 are referred as A1 and A2.

(2.) The brief facts, that are necessary for disposal of this appeal, are as hereunder:-

(3.) Per contra, the learned counsel appearing for the accused submitted that it has been the consistently held by the courts that unless the order of acquittal passed by the trial court is found to be perverse and illegal, the appellate court ought not to interfere with the said acquittal. It is the submission of the learned counsel for the accused/respondents 1 and 2 that the mens rea has to be established with regard to the instigation of the accused in driving the deceased to commit the extreme step of ending her life and the onus is on the prosecution to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that such mens rea existed and it cannot be inferred. It is the submission of the learned counsel for the accused that P.W.s 1 to 3 are not eye witnesses to the occurrence. Further, there are no eye witnesses to the occurrence and the other witnesses, who have been examined to speak about the other facets of the case, have turned hostile. P.W.s 1 to 3 are interested witnesses and, therefore, a duty is cast upon the court to microscopically analyse their evidence. It is the submission of the learned counsel that the evidence of P.W.s 1 to 3 in no way furthers the case of the prosecution to bring the crime within the ambit of Section 306 of IPC. Even it is the case of the prosecution, through the evidence of P.W.s 1 to 3 that there was matrimonial dispute between A-1 and the deceased. Perturbed by the matrimonial dispute, the deceased had decided to do away with her life and, in such circumstances, the accused cannot be fastened with the liability by bringing the death of the deceased within the ambit of Sections 306 and 498-A IPC.