LexJITEN BESRA versus STATE OF WEST BENGAL
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[2010) 3 S.C.R. 271 JITEN BESRA v. STATE OF WEST BENGAL (Criminal Appeal No. 1499 of 2007) MARCH 10, 2010 [V.S. SIRPURKAR AND SURINDER SINGH NIJJAR, JJ.] A B Penal Code, 1860 - s.302 - Appellant convicted by Courts below for killing his parents-in-law - On basis of circumstantial evidence viz. i) enmity of appellant with his C parents-in-law; ii) blood stains on clothes of appellant and iii) presence of appellant in the village of deceased on the fateful night - Conviction challenged - Held: Circumstances of the case did not point out towards the guilt of appellant, without any other inference being probable - Evidence of PWs D suggests that appellant was on visiting terms with his parents- in-law, hence, circumstance of enmity cannot be relied upon as an incriminating circumstance - Circumstance of blood stains on clothes of appellant is of no consequence since clothes of appellant or deceased persons were never sent to E Forensic Science Laboratory - Mere presence of appellant in the village also not an incriminating circumstance, particularly, when he was on visiting terms with his parents- in-law - Appellant entitled to get benefit of doubt - Hence, acquitted - Evidence - Circumstantial evidence - F Appreciation of. According to the prosecution, the appellant killed his parents-in-law. The prosecution examined, in all, 15 witnesses which included PW1 (appellants' wife), PWs 2 to 13(persons from the locality), PW14 (the doctor who G conducted post-mortem of the dead bodies) and PW15 (the Investigating Officer). The trial court convicted appellant by placing reliance upon the evidence of - prosecution witnesses and the circumstantial evidence 271 H 272 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2010] 3 S.C.R. A viz. (i) presence of appellant in the village of deceased on the fateful night; (ii) strained relationship of appellant with his parents-in-law; and (iii) blood stains on the clothes of appellant. The High Court affirmed the conviction of the B c appellant. Hence the present appeal. Allowing the appeal, the Court HELD: 1. Benefit of doubt is given to the accused- appellant and he is acquitted of all the charges. [Para 9) [279-E] 2.1. PW-1, the author of the FIR, had barely stated about the strained relationship of her and her husband i.e. the accused-appellant as also between her deceased parents and the accused. According to her, she had seen 0 her husband to be present after she came back and realized that her parents were done to death. She also asserted that his clothes were blood stained at that time. Very strangely, however, in the FIR which she made almost immediately, PW1 had stated that one unknown person had committed the murder of her parents. She E also admitted that the FIR was written in her house' and a number of persons were present there, including the accused. This was a very important piece of evidence, the relevance of which does not seem to have been realized by the Courts below. Even as regards the so-called F enmity, which is one of the circumstances held against the accused, she admitted that she could not remember any mis-behaviour committed by the accused towards her. From her cross-examination, it is clear that the accuse"<! was on visiting terms to her. This does not G suggest" in any manner that there was such a fierce enmity between the accused and the deceased persons or even PW1. [Para 6) [277-A-E] 2.2. The evidence of other witnesses like PW-2 is of H no consequence. He is silent on the question of any JITEN BESRA v. STATE OF WEST BENGAL 273 enmity. In fact he appears to be a scribe of the FIR. He A also admitted that the accused was present when the FIR was being written. However, he did not assert anything regarding the so-called,' enmity of the accused with the deceased persons. All that he has asserted was that the accused had strained relationship with his wife and his B parents-in-law. The evidence of PW-3 only asserted that the clothes of the accused were soaked in blood and the relationship between the accused and his wife and his parents-in-law were strained. To the same extent is the evidence of PWs 4 to 13. Beyond saying that the relations c were strained and further that the clothes of accused were blood stained, all these witnesses have stated nothing more. None of them has, however, stated that the accused was not even on visiting terms. On the other hand, their evidence suggests that th
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