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While disposing of appeals from the sentences of the Sessions Court under this Section, the High Court should specify the reasons for rejection of appeal and should not reject it summarily, and the same issue was held in the judgement passed by a single bench judge Hon’ble Meenakshi Madan Rai, J. In the matter Subash Thapa versus  State of Sikkim [Crl. A. No.04 of 2018] dealt with an issue mentioned above.

The instant matter pivots around the death of the victim, one Purna Kumar Gurung, aged about 34 years, working as a Lab Attendant under the Human Resource Development Department, in a school at Khecheopalri, West Sikkim. He is alleged to have been murdered by the appellant on the intervening night of 16-04-2016 and 17-04-2016 on a road half a kilometre away from his residence situated at 13th Mile, Tingling, West Sikkim.

That, the evidence of P.W.36 and P.W.37 alleged to have heard the extra-judicial confession of the appellant are unreliable, as P.W.37 made a concerted bid to improve his statements during the trial, leading to inconsistencies in the Prosecution case besides which he had a political rivalry with the appellant during the Panchayat elections.

The court perused the facts and arguments presented in the case In the end result, we find that the Prosecution has not only failed to establish the last seen together theory, but also the motive of the appellant for committing the crime. On pain of repetition, it is reiterated that the seizure of the articles allegedly based on Exhibit 5 is fraught with inconsistencies. In the absence of cogent, consistent and plausible evidence furnished by the Prosecution, there is every possibility of a false implication of the appellant.

 

While disposing of appeals from the sentences of the Sessions Court under this Section, the High Court should specify the reasons for rejection of appeal and should not reject it summarily, and the same issue was held in the judgement passed by a single bench judge Hon’ble Meenakshi Madan Rai, J. In the matter Subash Thapa versus  State of Sikkim [Crl. A. No.04 of 2018] dealt with an issue mentioned above.

The instant matter pivots around the death of the victim, one Purna Kumar Gurung, aged about 34 years, working as a Lab Attendant under the Human Resource Development Department, in a school at Khecheopalri, West Sikkim. He is alleged to have been murdered by the appellant on the intervening night of 16-04-2016 and 17-04-2016 on a road half a kilometre away from his residence situated at 13th Mile, Tingling, West Sikkim.

That, the evidence of P.W.36 and P.W.37 alleged to have heard the extra-judicial confession of the appellant are unreliable, as P.W.37 made a concerted bid to improve his statements during the trial, leading to inconsistencies in the Prosecution case besides which he had a political rivalry with the appellant during the Panchayat elections.

The court perused the facts and arguments presented in the case In the end result, we find that the Prosecution has not only failed to establish the last seen together theory, but also the motive of the appellant for committing the crime. On pain of repetition, it is reiterated that the seizure of the articles allegedly based on Exhibit 5 is fraught with inconsistencies. In the absence of cogent, consistent and plausible evidence furnished by the Prosecution, there is every possibility of a false implication of the appellant.

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Judgment reviewed by Sakshi Mishra