Ordinary Tiff Between Parties No Evidence Of Motive To Kill: Rajasthan High Court Grants Bail To Murder Accused
Rajasthan High Court has ruled that mere existence of some kind of tiff between the accused and the deceased could not be taken as evidence of accused's motive to kill the deceased. It thus granted bail to a murder accused who was behind bars since 2021, only on the basis of circumstantial evidences put forth by the prosecution.The prosecution had put forth three main circumstantial...
Rajasthan High Court has ruled that mere existence of some kind of tiff between the accused and the deceased could not be taken as evidence of accused's motive to kill the deceased. It thus granted bail to a murder accused who was behind bars since 2021, only on the basis of circumstantial evidences put forth by the prosecution.
The prosecution had put forth three main circumstantial evidences against the accused out of which one of the main arguments was, there were hostile relations between the parties.
The bench of Justice Farjand Ali highlighted,
"Simply because of some ordinary kind of tiff cannot be taken as an evidence of motive to kill the deceased...Serious doubt seems to be a reason behind arrest of the petitioners in the alleged crime, however, it is well nigh settled that suspicion, however, it may grave, cannot be a substitute or legal proof."
Prosecution also argued that a blood covered cloth was recovered from the accused. The Court however pointed that since accused had met with an accident, the evidence of blood covered cloth recovered from the accused fell flat since there was a possibility that the blood on the cloth was of the accused himself, especially since there was no FSL report in relation to that blood.
Pursuant to this analysis, the Court opined that the entire case of the prosecution was just based on conjectures without there being any legally admissible evidence.
“Serious doubt seems to be a reason behind arrest of the petitioners in the alleged crime, however, it is well night settled that suspicion, however, it may grave, cannot be a substitute or legal proof, reliance can be placed upon the judgment passed Hon'ble the Supreme Court in the case of Ashish Batham vs. State of Madhya Pradesh reported in AIR 2002 SC 3206. Simply because of some ordinary kind of tiff cannot be taken as an evidence of motive to kill the deceased.”
Highlighting that the accused had been in prison since 2021 with a high probability of the trial taking long time to conclude, the Court allowed the bail application.
Title: Dudaram v State of Rajasthan
Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Raj) 226