N Criminal Appeal No 476 of 1984
Appeal by Special leave from the Judgment and Order dated the 6th December 1983 of the Allahabad High Court in Appeal No 611 of 1976
Dr N M Ghatate and CK Ratnaparkhi for the Appellants
Manoj Swarup Dalveer Bhandari and AK Sanghi for the Respondents
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by CHANDRACHUD CJ
It is necessary to record this short order so that it may be known as to what an incredible amount of ingenuity is exercised by the people to secure false acquittals
A person by the name of Kunwar Bahadur was murdered in the village of Bamori Kalan District Jalaun on July 18 1971
The appellants were convicted for that murder and were sentenced to suffer imprisonment for life
On June 2 1983 dead body was found in Vidisha Madhya Pradesh
A letter purported to have been written by one Kunwar Bahadur was recovered from the person of the deceased
On the next day June 3 1983 a Hindi daily called Nav Bharat  carried a news item to the effect that the dead body of one Kunwar Bahadur Singh was found in Vidisha in suspicious circumstances and that the letter which was recovered from the person of the deceased showed that he was repentant
This news item is alleged to have come to the notice of the relatives of the appellants who contacted the Vidisha police
The contention of the appellants is that Kanwar Bahadur for whose murder they were convicted in 1971 was alive for 12 years thereafter and that his dead body was found on June 2 1983
By this appeal they pray for an order of acquittal or rather for an order setting aside their 12 year old conviction on the ground that they were convicted for a murder that never was 864 Since this appeal raised a question of serious concern to the administration of justice an order was passed by this Court on April 11 1984 directing the District Magistrate Vidisha to hold an inquiry into the allegation as to whether the person called Kunwar Bahadur who was alleged to have been murdered in 1971 was found alive after the alleged murder and was thereafter murdered in some other incident which took place in 1983
The District Magistrate Vidisha Shri OP Dube has submitted a report which deserves high praise
He has recorded statements of 18 persons and has examined documents leading to the conclusion that the person whose body was found on June 2 1983 is not the person who was murdered in 1971 and for whose murder the appellants were sentenced to life imprisonment
It is clear from the report of the District Magistrate that the letter which was found on the person of the dead body on June 2 1983 is a forged and fictitious document manufactured for the purpose of getting over the order whereby the appellants were convicted for the murder of Kunwar Bahadur in 1971
The age of Kunwar Bahadur who was murdered in 1971 does not tally with the age of the person alleged to be Kunwar Bahadur whose dead body was found on June 2 1983
The close relatives of the real Kunwar Bahadur who was murdered in 1971 have stated before the District Magistrate that the handwriting of the letter found on the person of the dead body which was discovered on June 2 1983 is not that of Kunwar Bahadur who was murdered in 1971
After the receipt of the District Magistrate s Report this appeal came up for hearing on August 13 1984 when Dr NM Ghatate appearing for the appellants asked that the District Magistrate should be directed further to show the photograph of the dead body which was discovered on June 2 1983 to the close relatives of Kunwar Bahadur in order to remove any doubt on the question whether the person whose dead body was found in 1983 is the very Kunwar Bahadur for whose murder the appellants were convicted
Seeing the plausibility of this submission a direction was given by this Court to the District Magistrate to do the needful and submit a further report to this Court
In accordance with the aforesaid direction the District Magistrate showed the photograph of the dead body which was 865 found on June 2 1983 to Kaushilya Rani Jamana Das Lodhi and Sughar Singh who are respectively the widow brother and son of Kunwar Bahadur who was murdered in 1971
The brother and son of Kunwar Bahadur stated that the photograph of the dead body which was discovered on June 2 1983 is not that of Kunwar Bahadur
Kaushilya Rani stated before the District Magistrate that her husband was tall and slim that he was not fat and that his complexion was fair
However she was unable to say whether the photograph shown to her was that of her husband since the impression in the photograph was not clear
On the basis of these statements the District Magistrate has submitted a Supplementary Report to this Court stating that the photograph of the dead body is not that of Kunwar Bahadur
We had directed the District Magistrate to forward to us along with his report the photograph of Kunwar Bahadur who was murdered in 1971 and the photograph of the dead body which was found in 1983
Having compared these two photographs which are annexures and 10 to the report of the District Magistrate we are of the opinion that the conclusion to which the District Magistrate has come is correct
There is no resemblance between the two photographs
The District Magistrate has stated that the officers of the Vidisha Police Station are guilty of a serious lapse in not registering the crime of murder when a dead body was found in their jurisdiction on June 2 1983
As observed by him in this report which is drawn with commendable care the entire case is shrouded in suspicion and deserves to be inquired into by the higher Police authorities
In the result we are of the opinion that Kunwar Bahadur for whose murder the appellants were convicted 13 years ago is not the same person whose dead body was found on June 2 1983 in Vidisha
The appeal is accordingly dismissed
SR Appeal dismissed


Summary:
The appellants were convicted and sentenced to suffer imprisonment for life for the murder of a person by the name of Kunwar Bahadur in the village of Bamori Kalan District Jalaun on July 18 1971
Based on a news item carried by a Hindi daily called Nav Bharat  on June 3 1983 that the dead body of one Kunwar Bahadur Singh was found in Vidisha in suspicious circumstances and that a letter purported to have been written by one Kunwar Bahadur Singh was recovered from the person of the deceased the appellants filed a petition before the High Court of Madhya Pradesh praying for their acquittals contending that Kunwar Bahadur Singh for whose murder they were convicted in 1971 was alive for twelve years thereafter and therefore their conviction was illegal
The High Court dismissed the petition
Hence the appeal by Special Leave of the Court
Dismissing the appeal the Court  HELD 11
When a person convicted of murder raised the question that he has material to show that he was convicted for a murder that had never taken place as for example by showing that the person who was alleged to have been murdered is in fact alive the Supreme Court has the jurisdiction in appropriate cases to call for further data from the concerned authorities in order to examine the contention of the convict
This jurisdiction on which the Supreme Court can exercise though with circumspection is in order to do complete justice in any matter which is pending before it or which has been disposed of by it
863G H 864A 1 2
The instant case however is an example of what an incredible amount of ingenuity is exercised by the people to secure false acquittals
The two reports called for from the District Magistrate Vidisha and the two photographs of 863 the two dead bodies found in 1971 and 1983 respectively make it clear that 1 Kunwar Bahadur Singh for whose murder the appellants were convicted thirteen years ago is not the same person whose dead body was found on June 2 1983 in Vidisha and 2 The letter which was found on the person of the dead body on June 2 1983 is a forged and fictitious document manufactured for the purpose of obtaining false acquittals
863D 864E 865E F