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PETITIONER: STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

       Vs.

RESPONDENT: MADHUKAR GOVIND PAKHARE

DATE OF JUDGMENT:       16/04/1998

BENCH: G.T. NANAVATI, S.P. KURDUKAR

ACT:

HEADNOTE:

JUDGMENT:                       J U D G M E N T Nanvati. J.      The State  has filed  this appeal against the acquittal of the  respondent who  was convicted by the trial court but acquitted  by   the  High   Court.  This   is  a   case   if circumstantial evidence. The circumstances which were relied upon by  the prosecution were relied upon by the prosecution were as under:      "1. Motive;       2.  The accused  and the  deceased           last seen  in the  company  of           each other;        3.   Finding   of   blood-stained           clothes and  footwear  in  the           house  of  the  accused  under           panchnama;       4.  Finding of  human blood on the           pyjama seized from the persons           of the  accused at the time of           arrest of the accused;       5.  Recovery of  the stone  at the           instance of  the  accused  and           the same  being  blood-stained           with  human   blood  of   ˜’A’           Group; and       6.  False explanation  alleged  to           have been given by the accused           to the inmates of the house of           the  deceased-Dnyany  on  14th           April 1982."      The trial court did not rely upon circumstances Nos.  2 and 3 but relying upon other circumstances, it convicted the respondent.      The High  Court did  not place  any reliance  upon  the recovery of  blood stained  shirts from  the  house  of  the accused as  in the panchnama under which they were seized it was not at all stated that there were blood on those shirts. On the  ’chapals’, which  were recovered  from the house, no human    blood  was detected.  Therefore,  no  reliance  was placed by the High Court on that circumstance also. The High

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court doubted  recovery of the stone with which the deceased was alleged to have been killed on the ground that the whole story was  improbable particularly  when it was found from a distance of  1&1/2 furlongs.   Moreover, the prosecution had failed to establish where the incident had taken place.      We have  gone through the evidence and we find that the view taken  by the  High Court  is not  unreasonable. The  - appeal is, therefore, dismissed. Bail bond of the respondent is cancelled.