National

‘Motive can be a relevant circumstance for conviction’

New Delhi: Motive can be considered as a relevant circumstance for convicting the accused in a criminal case if the evidence is clear and unambiguous, the Supreme Court has held while reversing the acquittal of six persons convicted by a trial court in Uttar Pradesh in a case of triple murder 30 years ago.

A Bench of Justice R. V. Raveendran and Justice P. Sathasivam, however, reduced the life imprisonment imposed by the trial court on the accused to 10 years rigorous imprisonment on the ground that the offence fell under Section 304 Part II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).

The Bench directed the convicts Kishanpal Singh, Suresh Singh, Mahendra Singh, Jaivir Singh, Sheodan Singh and Bahar Singh to surrender forthwith to serve the remaining part of the sentence.

Writing the judgment Justice Sathasivam said, “motive is a thing which is primarily known to the accused themselves and it is not possible for the prosecution to explain what actually promoted or excited them to commit the particular crime. The motive may be considered as circumstance which is relevant assessing the evidence but if the evidence is clear and unambiguous and the circumstances prove the guilt of the accused, the same is not weakened even if the motive is not a very strong one.”

The Bench said “it is a settled law that the motive loses all its importance in a case where direct evidence of eye-witnesses is available, because even if there may be a very strong motive for the accused persons to commit a particular crime, they cannot be convicted if the evidence of eye-witnesses is not convincing. In the same way if the evidence of eye-witnesses is clear and reliable, the absence or inadequacy of motive cannot stand in the way of conviction.”

In the instant case, the prosecution alleged that the accused along with 10 others armed with firearms killed Kaptan Singh, Raj Mahesh and Maya Devi on June 21, 1978 due to previous enmity. On the basis of evidence of eyewitnesses who happened to be relatives of the deceased, the trial court in 1980 convicted the six accused along with the main accused Onkar Singh.

On appeal by the accused, the Allahabad High Court while upholding the conviction of Onkar Singh acquitted the remaining accused on the ground that the eyewitnesses were all interested witnesses and could not be relied upon. The present appeal by the U.P. government is directed against that judgment. There was ample evidence to convict the accused, the Bench said and reversed the acquittal and imposed a sentence of 10 years imprisonment.

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