Acquittal in parricide case upheld due to lapses in investigation

Sanjay Kumar Sharma Vs State of Bihar & Ors. (Supreme Court of India)

Supreme Court held that acquittal in a parricide case upheld due to lapses in investigation. It was held that overzealous investigation is as fatal to prosecution as are the lethargic and the tardy. Accordingly, the appeal is dismissed.

Facts- Overzealous investigation is as fatal to prosecution as are the lethargic and the tardy. Framing a case on public perceptions and personal predilections ends up in a mess, often putting to peril an innocent and always letting free the perpetrator. Here, we have a case of gruesome death of a couple when their house was gutted in a fire, with the son and daughter-in-law accused of murder.

The entire case is founded on motive; the ill-will the son harbored against the father for not having given him his due share in the ancestral property. The entire village was against the son and the mishap ended in an investigation where truth was sacrificed at the altar of perceived vengeance, ably assisted by the Investigating Officer’s selective but careless pursuits, derailing the entire prosecution.

Conclusion- Held that a couple, at the fag end of their lives were burnt to death and the cause, whether it’s a homicide or accidental death, eludes civil society and throws a pall of suspicion on their own son and his family, who will always carry the yoke of dishonour. The son and daughter-in-law were accused of parricide and were convicted by the trial court, later acquitted by the High Court, which acquittal is now affirmed by us. The trauma of arrest, incarceration and trial will always scar the couple and more so their children who were left orphaned, during the time when their parents were imprisoned. We cannot but caution the investigators and the Courts to strive to do better and follow accepted practises and procedural rules to the hilt, when lives are lost or taken and there is a possibility of false accusations being made, putting to peril the reputations of the living. The appeal is dismissed.