SC upholds Punjab and Haryana HC verdict

By T. Padmanabha Rao

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 1. The inability of the prosecution ``to prove the motive aspect to the hilt'' in a given criminal case, would not by itself be sufficient to ``change the tide'' against the prosecution in a case where the accused is convicted and sentenced by courts below on the bails of convincing and reliable evidence, the Supreme Court has ruled.

``It is generally an impossible task for the prosecution to prove what precisely would have impelled the murderers to kill a particular person'' and ``all that prosecution in many cases could point to is the possible mental element which could have been the cause for the murder'' in a given case, the Bench said. Delivering the judgment, Mr. Justice K.T. Thomas affirmed the verdict of the Punjab and Haryana High Court upholding the conviction and sentence of imprisonment for life imposed on two accused (appellants) manufacturers of hosiery goods on charge of `murder' of one Amar Kumar Gupta, a broker for the sale of hosiery goods (deceased).

A unique feature of this case was a `railway burial' was contrived for eliminating the corpse and the coffin made for that purpose was camouflaged as parcel container to be despatched to a distant destination. But the parcel missed from being consigned to the railway bogie as some employees at the parcel service centre smelled foul.

The Bench which included Mr. Justice S.N. Variava cited with approval an observation in the apex court's ruling in Jeet Singh case which said that: ``It is almost an impossibility for the prosecution to unravel the full dimension of the mental disposition of an offender towards the person whom he offended.''

Another unique feature in this case was that the Bench relied on ``the psychological phenomenon that human memory is very often a conditioned characteristic''.

The Bench adverted to this psychological phenomenon to reject a plea of the accused-appellants that the evidence tendered against them (accused) by a rickshaw-puller - who carried the load of a `parcel-container' containing the corpse to the railway station for being booked as a parcel - was not reliable after a lapse of several days of the said event.

According to this `physiological phenomenon', ``anything which has any special or peculiar lineament can create an impact on the human mind lasting for long'' and ``while it is true that routine events in a man's day-to-day life may not remain in his mind for being remembered later, any odd or bizarre happenings involving him or in front of him have the tendency to stick in his mind indelibly,'' the Bench said.

``If there is any cause for him to recollect such events again they get refreshed again'' and ``that is why he (rickshaw-puller) is able to narrate such events with all details when asked to do so,'' the Bench noted adding that ``this applies to all witnesses in criminal cases involving serious offences''.

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