Petition against acquittal

Co-owner is deemed to be in constructive possession of every inch of joint holding unless a formal partition has been effected

Jurisprudence on co-ownership consistently affirms that one co-owner cannot allege dispossession at the hands of another without establishing exclusive possession through partition proceedings

Provision of Illegal Dispossession Act, 2005 is not confined to cases involving land grabbers or Qabza Mafia but extends to any person who has been illegally dispossessed from immovable property, however it is applicable only where there is clear evidence of unlawful dispossession

In cases where parties are co-owners, question of forcible dispossession does not arise unless partition proceedings have concluded and exclusive ownership is established

Acquitted accused enjoys a double presumption of innocence

Appellate Court should exercise restraint in overturning an acquittal unless the judgment is manifestly perverse, arbitrary, or suffers from a glaring misreading or non-reading of material evidence

Supreme Court declined to interfere in judgment of acquittal passed in faovur of accused

Petition for leave to appeal was dismissed and leave to appeal was refused.

Occurrence took place during the night and the natural witnesses of the occurrence, i.e. the wife and children of deceased had not been produced before the trial court as eyewitnesses

Eyewitnesses produced by the prosecution were chance witnesses and the stated reason for their presence with the deceased at the relevant time had never been established before the trial court through any independent evidence

Person who could have established the motive set up by the prosecution was not produced before the Trial Court

Different motive had been set up by the prosecution during the trial but the said motive had not been confirmed by one of the alleged eye-witnesses

Alleged recovery of weapon from the custody of accused was legally inconsequential because admittedly the crime-empties had been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory after arrest of accused and after recovery of the weapon from his custody

High Court had rightly extended the benefit of doubt to accused

Petition for leave to appeal was dismissed accordingly.