THAKORE UMEDSING NATHUSING versus STATE OF GUJARAT

Citation: [2024] 2 S.C.R. 1178 · Decided: 22-02-2024 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: BHUSHAN RAMKRISHNA GAVAI · Disposal: Appeal(s) allowed

cites 4 · see the full citation network in Lexace

Judgment (excerpt)

* Author
[2024] 2 S.C.R. 1178 : 2024 INSC 198
Thakore Umedsing Nathusing 
v. 
State of Gujarat
(Criminal Appeal No. 250 of 2016)
22 February 2024
[B.R. Gavai and Sandeep Mehta,* JJ.]
Issue for Consideration
Scope of interference by High Court in an appeal challenging 
acquittal of the accused by the trial Court; standard of proof required 
to bring home charges in a case based purely on circumstantial 
evidence.
Headnotes
Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 – s.378(1)(b) – Appeal in 
case of acquittal – Interference by High Court – Scope – 
Prosecution’s case that the accused persons took the jeep 
of the victim-deceased on hire and thereafter they murdered 
the victim and looted the jeep – Appellants-accused were 
convicted and sentenced for offence punishable u/s.392, IPC 
however, were acquitted u/s.302 r/w s.34 and ss.396 and 397, 
IPC – High Court reversed the acquittal and convicted them 
for offences punishable u/ss.302, 396, IPC and sentenced 
accordingly – Correctness:
Held: No direct evidence was led to bring home the charges 
against the accused and the entire case of prosecution was based 
on circumstantial evidence – Prosecution miserably failed to lead 
reliable, tangible and convincing links forming a complete chain 
of incriminating circumstances so as to bring home the guilt of the 
accused for the charge of murder punishable u/s.302 – Further, 
while reversing the acquittal of the accused recorded by the trial 
Court for the charges u/s.302 r/w s.34 and ss.396, 397, the High 
Court did not record any such finding that the view taken by the 
trial Court based on appreciation of evidence was either perverse 
or it was not one of the permissible views favouring the acquittal 
of the accused – Thus, the impugned judgment falls short of the 
satisfaction mandatorily required to be recorded for reversing 
a judgment of acquittal and converting it to one of conviction – 
[2024] 2 S.C.R. 
1179
Thakore Umedsing Nathusing v. State of Gujarat
Judgment of the High Court is based on conjectures and surmises 
rather than on any substantive or reliable circumstantial evidence 
pointing exclusively to the guilt of the accused – Judgment of the 
trial Court, convicting and sentencing the accused for offence 
u/s.392 is also based on the same set of inadmissible and unreliable 
links of circumstantial evidence, and the impugned judgment of 
the High Court are quashed and set aside – Appellants acquitted. 
[Paras 22, 37, 38-41]
Evidence – Circumstantial evidence – Standard of proof – 
Prosecution case that the accused persons had taken the jeep 
of the victim-deceased on hire and thereafter they murdered 
the victim and looted the jeep – Case of prosecution based 
entirely on circumstantial evidence:
Held: Prosecution relied upon the circumstantial evidence 
comprising of disclosures, recoveries and discoveries for bringing 
home the guilt of the accused – The most important recovery was 
allegedly of the jeep – The said recovery was attributed to A1, 
who was allegedly apprehended by PSI (PW-22) – He forwarded 
a report/communication (Exhibit-96) to the officer in-charge of 
the Sardarnagar Police Station wherein, the confession made by 
A1 implicating himself and the other accused was recorded – So 
called disclosure statement made by A1 (Exhibit-96) on which 
the prosecution banked upon and the High Court relied upon by 
treating it to be an incriminating circumstance against the accused 
persons was inadmissible, unworthy of reliance and doubtful and 
cannot be read in evidence against the other accused i.e. A2, A3 
and A5 – Exhibit-­96 being hit by s.25, Evidence Act cannot be 
read in evidence for any purpose whatsoever – The prosecution 
pinned the identity of A2, A3, and A5 as the assailants on the 
basis of the disclosure statement (Exhibit­-96) of A1 – They were 
primarily convicted on the basis of the recoveries of knives and 
clothes – These so called incriminating articles allegedly recovered 
at the instance of the accused were never sent to the Serology 
expert for comparison of the blood groups existing thereupon with 
the blood group of the deceased – Evidence of the concerned 
police officials associated with the recoveries and their testimonies 
were highly doubtful – The knife which was recovered at the 
instance of A3 was found from a nala which is a place open and 
accessible to all – The knife attributed to A4 cannot be linked 
to him – Recoveries were highly doubtful and tainted – These 
1180
[2

Excerpt shown. Read the full judgment & AI analysis in Lexace.