The First Additional Sessions Judge acquitted all the respondents of all the charges holding that there was no direct evidence to connect the respondents with the crime. The State of Madhya Pradesh went up in appeal against the order of acquittal and the High Court maintained the acquittal of respondents 2 to 7 but set aside the acquittal of respondent No. 1, Shyamsunder Trivedi for offences under Section 218, 201 and 342 IPC. His acquittal for the offences under Section 302/149 and 147 IPC was, however, maintained. The State filed an appeal in this court by special leave. This Court found that the following circumstances have been established by the prosecution beyond every reasonable doubt and coupled with the direct evidence of PWS 1, 3, 4, 8 and 18 those circumstances were consistent only with the hypothesis of the quilt of the respondents and were inconsistent with their innocence :
(a) that the deceased had been brought alive to the police station ad was last seen alive there on 13.10.81;
(b) That the dead body of the deceased was taken out of the police station on 14.1.81 at about 2 p.m. for being removed to the hospital;
(c) that SI Trivedi respondent No. 1, Ram Naresh shukla, Respondent and Ganiuddin respondent No. 5 were present at the police station and had all joined hands to dispose of the dead body of Nathu-Banjara:
(d) That si Trivedi, respondent No. 1 created false evidence and fabricated false clues in the shape of documentary evidence with a view to screen the offence and for that matter, the offender:
(e) SI Trivedi respondent in connivance with some of his subordinates, respondents herein had taken steps to cremate the dead body in haste describing the deceased as a ‘lavaris’ though the identity of the deceased, when they had interrogated for a sufficient long time was well known to them, and opined that:
“The observations of the High Court that the presence and participation of these respondents in the crime is doubtful are not borne out from the evidence on the record and appear to be an unrealistic over simplification of the tell tale circumstances established by the prosecution.”
One of us (namely, Anand, J.) speaking for the Court went on to observe :
“The trial court and the High Court, if we may say so with respect, exhibited a total lack of sensitivity and a ‘could not careless’ attitude in appreciating the evidence on the record and thereby condoning the barbarous there degree methods which are still being used, at some police stations, despite being illegal. The exaggerated adherence to and insistence upon the establishment of proof beyond every reasonable doubt, by the prosecution, ignoring the ground realities, the fact situations and the peculiar circumstances of a given case, as in the present case, often results in miscarriage of justice and makes the justice delivery system a suspect. In the ultimate analysis the society suffers and a criminal gets encouraged. Tortures in police custody, which of late are on the increase, receive encouragement by this type of an unrealistic approach of the Courts because it reinforces the belief in the mind of the police that no harm would come to them if an odd prisoner dies in the lock-up, because there would hardly be and evidence available to the prosecution to directly implicate them with the torture. The Courts, must not loose sight of the fact that death in police custody is perhaps on of the worst kind of crime in a a civilised society, governed by the rule of law and poses a serious thereat to an orderly civilised society.”
This Court then suggested : “The Courts are also required to have a change in their outlook and attitude, particularly in cases involving custodial crimes and they should exhibit more sensitivity and adopt a realistic rather than a narrow technical approach, while dealing with the case of custodial crime so that as far as possible within their powers, the guilty should not escape so that the victim of crime has the satisfaction that ultimately the Majesty of Law has prevailed.”
