Case: Charandas Swami Vs. State Of Gujarat


Decision reasoning: 0[ds]41. In all, five accused were put on trial. Accused No. 4 has been acquitted by the High Court. The prosecution has not challenged the acquittal of Accused No. 4. In fact, from the judgment of the High Court it is evident that the prosecution in all fairness conceded that the evidence against Accused No. 4 was insufficient. As regards Accused No. 3, both the courts have found that the prosecution succeeded in establishing the guilt of Accused No. 3. As a result, he has been convicted by the trial court and the finding of guilt against him has been affirmed by the High Court. Accused No. 3 has not filed any appeal against his conviction. That leaves us to consider the case against Accused Nos. 1, 2 and 5 in the present appeals.At the same time, we must remind ourselves of the settled legal position that this Court should be loath to overturn the concurrent findings of fact recorded by the two Courts unless the same are found to be palpably untenable or perverse.In our view, the decision in the case of Navjot Sandhu (Supra) has adverted to all the previous decisions and restated the legal position.It is not necessary to multiply the authorities on this aspect. In our opinion, the Courts below have rightly placed reliance on the fact discovered by the Investigating Officer (PW64) on the basis of the disclosure made by the Accused No.3 on 2nd April 1999, after his arrest on 29th March, 1999, as recorded in Exh. 188. The panchanama Exh.188 was proved by pancha witness PW30. The fact that PW30 was not on good terms with the accused cannot be the basis to discard his evidence. This aspect has been considered by the High Court and in our opinion, rightly, that the evidence of PW30 was relied upon for the limited purpose to prove the panchanama and not for any other relevant fact. We affirm the view taken by the courts below about the admissibility of disclosure of the spot where the dead body of Gadadharanandji was disposed of by Accused No.3. The same stood corroborated from the recovery of a dead body of an unknown person from the same spot by the Rajasthan Police on 4th May, 1998 on the information provided by PW50. That dead body, on subsequent medical examination was found to be of none other than that of Gadadharanandji.49. As regards the identity of the dead body, the Courts below took note of the evidence of PW57 and PW50. PW50 had informed the local police of Barothi on 4th May, 1998 about the dead body of an unknown person lying at the same spot, later on discovered to be that of Gadadharanandji due to the disclosure made by Accused No. 3. PW57 conducted the post-mortem of the burnt dead body found at Barothi village in Rajasthan. He deposed that the death was homicide. He also deposed about the golden teeth and a key found near the dead body. During the course of investigation, it was revealed that the said key could open the lock put up on the room of the deceased in the Vadtal Temple complex. PW3 corroborated that fact. Further, the identity of the dead body was conclusively established from the DNA testing results of the skin sample of the body which matched with the blood samples of the biological sister of the deceased. Additionally, PW1 also confirmed that he had treated the deceased in 1993 by implanting gold caps on his teeth. That statement was corroborated by the receipts and diary entries of PW1. Indeed, the Appellants have vehemently contended that the said medical records are fabricated because of the discrepancies therein. However, the said discrepancies would not discredit the other evidence regarding the identity of the dead body which has been duly corroborated. This view taken by the High Court, in our opinion, is a possible view. It is certainly not a perverse view. As the identity of the dead body of deceased Gadadharanandji is established, it is a strong circumstance to link it to Accused No.3 who had voluntarily disclosed to the investigating agency about the spot/location where the dead body of the deceased was dumped by him and that being the same place in Barothi village in Rajasthan from where the dead body of an unknown person was recovered earlier by the local police.50. That brings us to the efficacy of the disclosure made by Accused No.5 to the investigating agency - the place where Gadadharanandji was brought from Vadtal Temple and the crime of murder was finally executed. The disclosure so made by Accused No. 5 on 18th April, 1999, after his arrest, has been corroborated by the panchanama Ex.198 proved by pancha PW31. The Accused No.5 disclosed the room number in Navli Temple complex where Gadadharanandji had stayed on the day of incident. The Courts below have held the disclosure by Accused No.5 about the place where Gadadharanandji was brought at Navli Temple complex, as admissible. We affirm that view for the reasons noted while considering the efficacy of disclosure of Accused No.3. From this evidence, it is obvious that Gadadharanandji was taken away by Accused No.3 in a car from Vadtal Temple complex and brought to Navli Temple complex on 3rd May, 1998 itself. His dead body was dumped in a ditch in village Barothi in Rajasthan (another State) which was traced on 4th May, 1998 as a consequence of the information given by PW50.As noted earlier, it was only on the basis of the disclosure made by Accused No.5 as to the place where the murder was committed, that the investigating agency was able to take the investigation forward and then interrogate the aforesaid witnesses i.e. PW25, PW42, PW43 and PW49. Only a person who was present at the time of commission of the offence could have known about the location of the offence and Accused No.5 undoubtedly had exclusive knowledge about the place where the crime was committed, a fact which has been affirmed by both the courts. The panchnama drawn on the basis of this disclosure has been corroborated by independent pancha witness PW31.The Courts below, on analyzing the relevant evidence, have held that the inescapable conclusion is that the deceased was taken to Navli. We are in agreement with this finding, as the evidence on record supports that conclusion.58. On the basis of the aforementioned circumstances, the Courts below have held that the link connecting the chain of events and the link between Accused Nos.1, 2, 3 and 5 was complete in all respects, pointing to the guilt only of the said accused.59. The moot question is as to whythe appellants should have thought of committing thecrime. The motive behind the crime according to the prosecution was that Accused Nos.1 and 2 were irked by the proposal of the deceased Gadadharanandji to transfer them immediately after taking over as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Vadtal Temple on 11th April, 1998. The Courts below have adverted to the evidence of PW3, PW5, PW33, PW37 and PW39 and after analyzing the same, took the view that there was strong motive for Accused No.1 and 2 to murder Gadadharanandji as they felt threatened about their current position and of losing control over the affairs of the Vadtal Temple. Resultantly, the Accused Nos.1 and 2 hatched a conspiracy to commit the offence in question and took the assistance of Accused Nos.3 and 5 who were co-conspirators along with them. This finding was assailed by the appellants mainly on the ground that such a case was a figment of imagination of the prosecution. In fact, there were other persons who were inimical to Gadadharanandji after he was elected as Chairman of the Vadtal Temple. The Courts below have analysed this aspect and have rejected that argument. Both the Courts have held that mere unhappiness of those persons could not have been a ground to take such an extreme step. The fact that the names of other persons were mentioned in the F.I.R. but were dropped in the eventual chargesheet filed by the investigating agency does not diminish the credibility and the quality of evidence adduced by the prosecution about the involvement of the appellants in the commission of crime. As far as Accused Nos.1 and 2 are concerned, the Courts below have held that they were in complete control of the affairs of the Vadtal Temple complex. It is these Accused who were entertaining apprehension that their financial irregularities would also be exposed, in the event of their transfer. The fact that financial irregularities were committed by Accused Nos.1 and 2 and that they were getting kickbacks from PW39, has come on record. The argument of the appellants, however, is that the prosecution has neither produced any evidence about the disproportionate assets of these appellants nor put any specific question to them during their examination under Section 313 of the Code. This argument needs only to be rejected, in that the prosecution case against Accused Nos.1 and 2 was not one of having amassed disproportionate assets but was only of unexplained high-value cash amounts and other investments recovered during the search of their residence.60.The Counsel for the Appellant (Accused No. 1) had contended that there was no evidence against Accused No. 1 and he has been falsely implicated. He had placed reliance on Satenders Case (Supra).In that case, the High Court had acquitted the accused on recording a finding (see Para 29) - that there was no evidence of any overt act attributed to the accused. In the present case, however, the Courts below have after due analysis of the legal evidence and the proved circumstances has unambiguously found that the Accused No. 1 was the mastermind of the conspiracy to murder Gadadharanandji. We see no reason to take a different view. Similarly, it has been concurrently found that Accused Nos.3 and 5 are the henchmen of Accused Nos.1 and 2, a fact which has not been challenged by the said appellants. In other words, the future prospect of Accused Nos.3 to 5 was fully dependent upon the existence and continuation of the Accused Nos.1 and 2 at Vadtal Temple complex. Both the Courts below have analysed these aspects and come to the conclusion that there were strong circumstances indicating the involvement of the appellants in the commission of the crime and excluding any possibility of their innocence.61.Relying upon paragraphs 6, 7 and 9 of the decision in P K Narayanan (Supra), it was argued that mere evidence regarding motive and preparation for commission of the offence is not enough to substantiate the charge of conspiracy to commit offence. In our view, the conclusion reached in that case was on the facts of that case.In the present case, we find that the Courts below have analysed the evidence on record and correctly answered the issue under consideration on the basis of circumstances proved before, during and after the occurrence indicating complicity of the Appellants. These circumstances were not compatible with the possibility of innocence of the Appellants; and moreso because of absence of any explanation from them. We are in agreement with the view so taken by the two Courts, about the involvement of Accused Nos.1, 2, 3 and 5 in the commission of the offence in question.62. Relying upon Paragraphs 13 to 15 of the decision in Baliya @ Bal Kishan (supra), it was argued that the finding of conspiracy recorded by the Courts below is untenable. We are not impressed with this argument. It is well settled that such a conspiracy is rarely hatched in the open. There need not be any direct evidence to establish the same. It can be a matter of inference drawn by the Court after considering whether the basic facts and circumstances on the basis of which inference is drawn have been proved beyond all reasonable doubts and that no other conclusion except that of the complicity of accused to have agreed to commit an offence is evident. That is precisely what has been done by the Courts below in the present case. There is no legal evidence to give benefit of any doubt to the Appellants. We have no hesitation in affirming the view taken by the Courts below in this regard.63. The Appellants have made fervent effort to persuade the Court about the several other discrepancies - such as about the age of the deceased in Exhibits 95 and 98 or that the High Court having discarded the circumstance of wrappers of sleeping pills found at the Navli Temple. That, however, does not discredit the other clinching circumstances established by the prosecution, which completes the chain of events indicative of the involvement of the Appellants in commission of the crime. The circumstances taken into account by both the Courts and as adverted to herein before, leave no manner of doubt about the complicity of the appellants in commission of the crime in question. It is, therefore, not necessary for us to dilate on those contentions.64. We are also not impressed by the argument of Accused No. 5 that he should be given the same benefit as given to Accused No. 4 by the High Court. In so far as Accused No. 5, there is ample evidence about his involvement in commission of the crime. The Courts below have rightly noticed that he was involved, right from the disappearance of Gadadharanandji from Vadtal Temple complex till the disposal of his dead body at Barothi. Those aspects have been considered while discussing the relevant circumstances. We are, therefore, in agreement with the conclusion reached by the Courts below that there is sufficient evidence to indicate the complicity of Accused No. 5 in commission of the crime in question. Suffice it to observe that the circumstances established indicating the complicity of Accused No. 5 cannot be compared with the role of Accused No. 4, so as to give the same benefit to him.65. On analyzing the evidence and the judgments including the findings and conclusion recorded by both the Courts, we have no hesitation in upholding the order of conviction against Accused Nos.1, 2 and 5 (appellants herein). For, the presence of Gadadharanandji at Vadtal Temple complex on the day of incident, the evidence that he was last seen together with Accused No.3 going from Vadtal Temple complex in a car, the recovery of a dead body in village Barothi in the neighboring state of Rajasthan on the next day of disappearance of Gadadharanandji, the disclosure made by Accused No.3 about the location as to where the dead body of Gadadharanandji was dumped by him in a village at Barothi, the discovery of the fact after subsequent medical examination that the dead body so recovered was of none other than that of Gadadharanandji, the disclosure made by Accused No.5 of the location where Gadadharanandji was strangled at Navli Temple complex, the conduct of Accused No.3 in misleading the investigating agencies, the burning of the vehicle used in the commission of the crime and then filing of a false insurance claim which was rejected by the insurance company, the strong motive for committing the murder of Gadadharanandji and the criminal conspiracy hatched in that behalf and executed, leave no manner of doubt about the involvement of the appellants in the commission of the crime. We fully agree with the opinion recorded by the Courts below in that regard. It is not a case of finding of guilt recorded in absence of any legal evidence or contrary to the evidence available on record. We find that the finding of guilt against the appellants is inescapable. Hence, we see no tangible reason to interfere with the final conclusion so reached by both the Courts.