Case: Inspector Of Police, T.N Vs. Palanisamy @ Selvan

The State of Tamil Nadu questions the correctness of the judgment rendered by a Division Bench of the Madras High Court directing acquittal of the respondent. Learned Additional Sessions Judge, Erode had found the respondent guilty of offence punishable under Section 302, Indian Penal Code (in short IPC) and convicted him accordingly and sentenced him to undergo imprisonment for life. The case at hand rests on circumstantial evidence. The first circumstance which was highlighted by the prosecution was that Pws. 1 and 2 allegedly saw the deceased in the company of the as used around 11 o clock in thesecond was an alleged extra judicial confession before PW3 the village head. Though the trial Court placed reliance on these factors to find the accused guilty the High Court found the evidence of Pws. 1 and 2 to be unreliable so far as the claim to have seen accused and the deceased together around 11 oclock in the night. Similarly the High Court found that the so-called extra judicial confession has not been established by PW3.

Reasoning: We find that the High Court has analysed the evidence in great detail and we find that the evidence of PWs 1 and 2 is not truthful so far identification aspect is concerned. Undisputedly it was a dark night. They claimed to have identified them from their voice. Though such identification in some cases is possible in the instant case no evidence was adduced to show that the witnesses were closely acquainted with the accused to even identify him from his voice, that too from a very short replies, purported to have been given. This fact was lost sight of by the Trial court. The High Court found the possibility of identification as claimed by PWs 1 and 2 an impossibility. So far the purported extra judicial confession is concerned the High Court found that the same also has not been established through the evidence of PW3. The reasons given by the High Court to discard the evidence of PW3 do not suffer from any infirmity.