13 years on, Supreme Court acquits family sentenced to life

The case is a shocking reminder of police docility to political influences, lack of proper legal representation: Bench

The Supreme Court has acquitted three members of a family, framed by the police acting under political pressure and sentenced to life imprisonment by the courts, after they complained about their relative’s murder over a ₹250 debt, 13 years ago.

A Bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and V. Ramasubramanian, in a judgment, said the police, instead of proceeding in pursuit of the truth, tried to bury it many fathoms deep in a case which is a shocking reminder of police docility to political influences, and lack of proper legal representation in courts and judicial oversight.

In May 2008, a grievously injured Nand Kishore was rushed to the hospital by Madhav. Kishore was the brother of Raju Yadav. Yadav was married to Madhav’s sister, Sahodara Bai. But Kishore was declared dead on arrival. He had suffered a brutal beating with sticks and lathis. Bai informed the police. The three of them named two men, Ruia and Kailash, in the FIR as the culprits.

However, the case took a bizarre turn. The Madhya Pradesh Police turned on them. Instead of investigating the FIR, the police arrested the three family members of the dead man. They charged them with his murder. The trial court convicted all three and sentenced them to life in prison. During trial, they realised that the two men they had named in the FIR for the murder of Kishore were arraigned by the police as star witnesses. It was a case in which the informant turned into the accused and the accused donned the roles of witnesses. The State High Court went on to confirm their punishment.

“We are conscious of the fact that at times persons who commit a crime, themselves make/lodge the first information so as to create an alibi of innocence. But even in such cases the investigation would normally proceed first against those named as accused in the FIR, and thereafter, the needle of suspicion may turn against the informant himself,” Justice Ramasubramanian, who authored the judgment for the Bench, reasoned.

The apex court concluded that a close scrutiny of the sequence of events from the date of occurrence of the crime, on May 13, 2008, revealed that the probe in the case “instead of proceeding in pursuit of truth, had proceeded towards burying the truth”.

“We are clearly of the view that the investigation in this case was carried out by prosecution witness 14 (Investigating Officer) not with the intention of unearthing the truth, but for burying the same fathom deep for extraneous considerations, and that it was designed to turn the informant and her family members as the accused and allow the real culprits named in the FIR to escape,” Justice Ramasubramanian wrote.

The apex court was appalled by the fact that both the Sessions Court and the High Court “overlooked” crucial admissions during trial even to the extent that the police faced “political pressure” when they tried to arrest Ruia and Kailash.

Besides, Justice Ramasubramanian wondered why both the courts found nothing amiss in the prosecution version that a murderer would rush his victim to the hospital in an autorickshaw.

“The normal human behaviour in such circumstances will be either to flee the place of occurrence or to go to the police station to surrender, except in cases where they are intelligent and seasoned criminals. Neither did happen,” Justice Ramasubramanian observed.

Besides, the apex court said the police story that the brothers fought over Kishore’s debt of ₹250 to Ruia was unbelievable. “The reason why the Investigating Officer did not even suspect the role of Ruia and Kailash Yadav in the commission of the crime remains unexplained," Justice Ramasubramanian observed.

The Bench said neither the trial court nor the High Court had discharged their duties properly in the case. The apex court also noted that the three family members did not have competent defence lawyers in the case. They were ordered to be released immediately.

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