Case: Dhananjoy Chatterjee Vs. State Of West Bengal

the theft of the watch on the date of occurrence from the flat where the ghastly occurrence took place. The absence of any explanation for possession of the wrist-watch belonging to PW 3 by the appellant is a circumstance which goes against the appellant. 11. All the circumstances referred to above and relied upon by the prosecution have been conclusively established by the prosecution. They are specific and of a clinching nature and all of them irresistibly lead to the conclusion that the appellant alone was guilty of committing rape of Hetal and subsequently murdering her. All the circumstances which have been conclusively established are consistent only with the hypothesis of the guilt of the appellant and are totally inconsistent with his innocence. Not only in the cross- examination of various prosecution witnesses, but even during the arguments, nothing has been pointed out as to why any of the witnesses for the prosecution should have falsely implicated the appellant in such a heinous crime. None of the witnesses had any motive to falsely implicate him. None had any enmity with him. The witnesses produced by the prosecution have withstood the test of cross-examination well and their creditworthiness and reliability has not been demolished in any manner. All the circumstances established by the prosecution, as discussed above, are conclusive in nature and specific in details. They are consistent only with the hypothesis of the guilt of the appellant and totally inconsistent with his innocence. We are therefore in complete agreement with the trial court and the High Court that the prosecution has established the guilt of the appellant beyond a reasonable doubt and we, therefore, uphold his conviction for the offences under Sections 302, 376 and 380 IPC. 12. This now brings us to the question of sentence. The trial court awarded the sentence of death and the High Court confirmed the imposition of capital punishment for the offence under Section 302 IPC for the murder of Hetal Parekh. Learned counsel submitted that appellant was a married man of 27 years of age and there were no special reasons to award the sentence of death on him. Learned counsel submitted that keeping in view the legislative policy discernible from Section 235(2) read with Section 354(3) Cr.P.C., the Court may make the choice of not imposing the extreme penalty of death on the appellant and give him a chance to become a reformed member of the society in keeping with the concern for the dignity of human life. Learned counsel for the State has on the other hand canvassed for confirmation of the sentence of death so that it serves as a deterrent to similar depraved minds. According to the learned State counsel there were no mitigating circumstances and the case was undoubtedly "rarest of the rare" cases where the sentence of death alone would meet the ends of justice. 13. We have given our anxious consideration to the question of sentence keeping in view the changed legislative policy which is patent from Section 354(3) Cr.P.C.. We have also considered the observations of this Court in Bachan Singh case. 14. In recent years, the rising crime rate particularly violent crime against women has made the criminal sentencing by the courts a subject of concern. Today there are admitted disparities. Some criminals get very harsh sentences while many receive grossly different sentence for an essentially equivalent crime and a shockingly large number even go unpunished thereby encouraging the criminal and in the ultimate making justice suffer by weakening the systems credibility. Of course, it is not possible to lay down any cut and dry formula relating to imposition of sentence but the object of sentencing should be to see that the crime does not go unpunished and the victim of crime as also the society has the satisfaction that justice has been done to it. In imposing sentences in the absence of specific legislation, Judges must consider variety of factors and after considering all those factors and taking an overall view of the situation, impose sentence which they consider to be an appropriate one. Aggravating factors cannot be ignored and similarly mitigating circumstances have also to be taken into consideration. 15. In our opinion, the measure of punishment in a given case must depend upon the atrocity of the crime; the conduct of the criminal and the defenceless and unprotected state of the victim. Imposition of appropriate punishment is the manner in which the courts respond to the societys cry for justice against the criminals. Justice demands that courts should impose punishment befitting the crime so that the courts reflect public abhorrence of the crime. The courts must not only keep in view the rights of the criminal but also the rights of the victim of crime and the society at large while considering imposition of appropriate punishment. 16. The sordid episode of the security guard, whose sacred duty was to ensure the protection and welfare of the inhabitants of the flats in the apartment, should have subjected the deceased, a resident of one of the flats, to gratify his lust and murder her in retaliation for his transfer on her complaint, makes the crime even more heinous. Keeping in view the medical evidence and the state in which the body of the deceased was found, it is obvious that a most heinous type of barbaric rape and murder was committed on a helpless and defenceless school-going girl of 18 years. If the security guards behave in this manner who will guard the guards? The faith of the society by such a barbaric act of the guard, gets totally shaken and its cry for justice becomes loud and clear. The offence was not only inhuman and barbaric but it was a totally ruthless crime of rape followed by cold blooded murder and an affront to the human dignity of the society. The savage nature of the crime has shocked our judicial conscience. There are no extenuating or mitigating circumstances whatsoever in the case.

Decision (1 = appeal accepted, 0 = rejected): 0

Explanation:
0[ds]11. All the circumstances referred to above and relied upon by the prosecution have been conclusively established by the prosecution. They are specific and of a clinching nature and all of them irresistibly lead to the conclusion that the appellant alone was guilty of committing rape of Hetal and subsequently murdering her. All the circumstances which have been conclusively established are consistent only with the hypothesis of the guilt of the appellant and are totally inconsistent with his innocence. Not only in the cross- examination of various prosecution witnesses, but even during the arguments, nothing has been pointed out as to why any of the witnesses for the prosecution should have falsely implicated the appellant in such a heinous crime. None of the witnesses had any motive to falsely implicate him. None had any enmity with him. The witnesses produced by the prosecution have withstood the test of cross-examination well and their creditworthiness and reliability has not been demolished in any manner. All the circumstances established by the prosecution, as discussed above, are conclusive in nature and specific in details. They are consistent only with the hypothesis of the guilt of the appellant and totally inconsistent with his innocence. We are therefore in complete agreement with the trial court and the High Court that the prosecution has established the guilt of the appellant beyond a reasonable doubt and we, therefore, uphold his conviction for the offences under Sections 302, 376 and 380