JIBON CH BHARALI Vs. STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Appreciation of circumstantial evidence coupled with confession and extra-judicial confession and plea of alibi by defence require consideration in this appeal arising out of impugned judgment and order of conviction of the appellant Jibon Ch. Bharali under Sections 302/20 1 of the IPC in Sessions Case No. 41 (NL)83 of the Court of Sessions Judge, North Lakhimpur.

(2.) When a case rests on circumstantial evidence, three tests must be fulfilled to base the conviction, and they are (1) the circumstance from which inference of guilt is to be drawn must be cogent; (2) those circumstances must bear definite tendency of unmistakably pointing towards guilt of the accused; and (3) that the circumstance taken collectively should formulate a complete chain to focus that there exists no escape in conclude that in all human probabilities the crime was committed by the accused facing trial and none else. A confession duly recorded by strictly observing the formalities of the provisions of section 164 of the Cr. P.C. and found to have been voluntarily made with true narration of the incident, conviction can Barely be based on it, even it is retracted in the course or trial. Although, an extra Judicial confession Is regarded as a weak piece of evidence, but it demands and must be given value when it comes from the mouths of witnesses disinterested in the incident and cannot be suspected of falsely implicating the accused in the trial. A plea of alibi when taken by an accused must be conclusively proved by him and in case of failure of proving the plea or adducing un-reasonable evidence on the plea, the prosecution case and its substantive evidence implicating accused gets further strengthened. All these tests will be applied while scrutinizing the different aspects in the evidence of this case.

(3.) The case was initiated on the basis of the First Information Report lodged by Shri Ganesh Ch. Bharali (PW-3), brother of the deceased on 21-6-82 stating that accused Jibon Bharali secretly killed his father Thaneswar Bharali, in the night of 20.6.82, and burned the dead body in the courtyard; and that it was perhaps done due to the quarrel between father and son. Thereupon, police investigated into the case, the dead body was dis-intered by a Magistrate on 22-6-82. Investigation being completed and on submission of the charge-sheet, the accused Jibon Bharali faced the trial for the charges under sections 301/20 1 of the Indian Penal Code, by pleading not guilty.