AIR 1977 SUPREME COURT 2005 ::1977 Cri App R (SC) 295 ::(1977) 4 SCC 56 ::1977 SCC(Cri) 551 ::1977 SC Cri R 343

Supreme Court Of India

(From : Punjab and Haryana)*

Hon'ble Judge(s): A. C. Gupta, S. Murtaza Fazal Ali , JJ

(A) Penal Code (45 of 1860) , S.300— Motive - Value of - Serious enmity between parties - Motive for informant to implicate accused and motive for accused to kill informant equally balanced - Truth of prosecution case to be ascertained from surrounding circumstances. (Para 4) (B) Penal Code (45 of 1860) , S.300— Benefit of doubt - When can be given to accused. The prosecution case was that the relations between P and the respondents (accused) were extremely strained, that on the date of occurrence at 6 A. M. with the intention of killing P, the six respondents armed with pistol-gun, hand grenade and gandasis, climbed over the walls of adjoining house and one of them threw hand grenade into the courtyard of P's house and it exploded and killed sister-in-law of P (wife of P's brother A) and her daughter, that P and A who were giving fodder to cattle hid behind a pillar, that another respondent fired a pistol shot at P which did not hit him and that the respondents ran away. The trial Court convicted the respondents but the High Court in appeal acquitted them. Held that there were certain important intrinsic circumstances which threw a great deal of doubt on the prosecution case (i) A whose wife and daughter had killed and who had wit....