1. The present appeal, under Section 378 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, is directed against the judgment and order of acquittal dated 23.12.1996 passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Junagadh in Sessions Case No.23 of 1992, whereby the accused have been acquitted from the charges leveled against them.
2. Facts in brief of the prosecution case are such that the accused No.1 was compelling the deceased to marry with him and the deceased was not ready and willing to marry with the accused No.1 and therefore, accused No.1 along with other accused persons caused harassment to the deceased and the accused tried to show the people of society that the deceased was not having good character. Therefore, as a last resort, the deceased committed suicide by putting herself on railway track and died. It is alleged that the accused misbehaved with the deceased and, therefore, the attitude on the part of the accused, resulted into committing suicide. Therefore, the offence under Sections 306, 34 and 114 of the Indian Penal Code was registered against the accused. Thereafter, necessary investigation was carried out and statements of several witnesses were recorded. During the course of investigation, respondents were arrested and, ultimately, chargesheet was filed against them before the Court of learned Judicial Magistrate. Thereafter, as the case was exclusively triable by the Sessions Court, the same was committed to the Sessions Court, which was numbered as Sessions Case No.23 of 1992. The trial was initiated against the respondents accused.
3. To prove the case against the present accused, the prosecution has examined, in all 11 witnesses and also produced several documentary evidence.
4. At the end of trial, after recording the statement of the accused under section 313 of Cr.P.C., and hearing arguments on behalf of prosecution and the defence, the learned Sessions Judge acquitted the respondents of all the charges leveled against them by judgment and order as aforesaid.
5. Being aggrieved by and dissatisfied with the aforesaid judgment and order passed by the Sessions Court, the appellant State has preferred the present appeal.
6. It is submitted by learned APP that the judgment and order of the Sessions Court is against the provisions of law; the Sessions Court has not properly considered the evidence led by the prosecution and looking to the provisions of law itself it is established that the prosecution has proved the whole ingredients of the evidence against the present respondents. Learned APP has also taken this court through the oral as well as the entire documentary evidence. She further stated that due to harassment on the part of the accused, the deceased committed suicide. She submitted that from the evidence of P.W.1 Govindbhai, complainant, it is prima facie established that the deceased was his daughter and she told him about allegations made by the accused of having bad character by the deceased because the accused No.1 insisted the deceased to marry with him, but the deceased was ready to marry with him. From the letter written by the deceased, the involvement of the accused in the offence is very well proved. She submitted that even from the evidence of other witnesses, the case against the accused was proved, but the learned trial Judge has not properly appreciated the evidence and acquitted the accused of the charges. The ingredients of Section 107 and 108 are very well established, but the trial Court by ignoring the provisions of the Act, acquitted the accused and therefore, the Appeal is required to be allowed by quashing and setting aside the judgment and order of acquittal.
7. Learned advocate Mr. Ketan Shah for the respondents supported the judgment and order of acquittal passed by the trial Court and he submitted that no interference is required to be called for by this Court. He submitted that judgment and order of acquittal is required to be confirmed by dismissing the Appeal.
8. I have perused the record and considered the submissions made by the parties. I have perused the oral evidence of the witnesses examined by the trial Court. From the evidence of the complainant, it is not explained by the complainant about the allegations against the accused and what kind of harassment or allegation about the character of the deceased. It also transpires from the record that the accused had remarried with other lady and therefore, the allegation of insistence on the part of the accused No.1 to marry with the deceased is not supported by any documentary as well as oral evidence. The witnesses examined during the trial had not properly supported the case of the prosecution. From the note written by the deceased, nothing is reflected about the harassment on the part of the accused. From the record, it is not established that the accused compelled the deceased to marry with her or any kind of harassment on the part of the accused. Learned trial Court has observed in detail in his judgment and order about the documentary and oral evidence and by appreciating rightly the evidence on record, the accused were ordered to be acquitted from the charges.
9. I have gone through the judgment and order passed by the trial court. I have also perused the oral as well as documentary evidence led before the trial court and also considered the submissions made by learned APP for the appellantState. Thus, from the evidence itself, it is established that the prosecution has not proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.
10. It is also a settled legal position that in acquittal appeal, the appellate court is not required to rewrite the judgment or to give fresh reasonings, when the reasons assigned by the Court below are found to be just and proper. Such principle is laid down by the Apex Court in the case of State of Karnataka Vs. Hemareddy, reported in AIR 1981 SC 1417 wherein it is held as under:
“… This court has observed in Girija Nandini Devi V. Bigendra Nandini Chaudhary (1967)1 SCR 93: (AIR 1967 SC 1124) that it is not the duty of the appellate court when it agrees with the view of the trial court on the evidence to repeat the narration of the evidence or to reiterate the reasons given by the trial court expression of general agreement with the reasons given by the Court the decision of which is under appeal, will ordinarily suffice.”
11. Learned APP is not in a position to show any evidence to take a contrary view of the matter or that the approach of the trial court is vitiated by some manifest illegality or that the decision is perverse or that the trial court has ignored the material evidence on record.
12. In the above view of the matter, I am of the considered opinion that the trial court was completely justified in acquitting the respondent of the charges leveled against her.
13. I find that the findings recorded by the trial court are absolutely just and proper and in recording the said findings, no illegality or infirmity has been committed by it.
14. I am, therefore, in complete agreement with the findings, ultimate conclusion and the resultant order of acquittal recorded by the court below and hence find no reasons to interfere with the same. Hence the appeal is hereby dismissed. Bail bond, if any, stands cancelled. Record and proceedings to be sent back to trial Court, forthwith.
ynvyas (Z.K. SAIYED, J.)