Case: State of Gujarat Through C.B.I Vs. Kumudchandra Pranjivan Shah

This is an appeal by the State of Gujarat against the judgment dated July 6, 1981 passed in Criminal Appeal No. 796 of 1981 by the High Court of Gujarat setting aside the conviction and sentence passed against the respondent by the learned Special Judge, Ahmedabad in Special Case No. 32/80 dated July 31, 1981.

Reasoning: 2. We have considered the reasonings given by both the Trial Court and the High Court and we have been taken through the evidences given in the case. It appears to us that there is force in the view taken by the High Court. In the instant case, the panch witness who admittedly was the President of Vegetable Sellers in the city of Rajkot had acted as a panch witness in a number of cases and admittedly he was a social worker. There was no reason for not remembering the fact that he appeared as panch witness. He initially tried to suppress the said fact and the police officer also did not speak out the truth about the said panch witness acting as panch witness in other cases. In the aforesaid circumstances, the High Court felt that the prosecution case should not be accepted in the absence of convincing independent evidence fully corroborating the evidence given by the said witnesses.