28 years on, Gujarat high court overturns man's acquittal

AHMEDABAD: In a rare case, the Gujarat high court has overturned a 28-year-old order of acquittal in a murder case after upholding the victim's dying declaration.
The HC has now charged the accused for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and issued a notice to him to reply to the new charge in the same case.
According to the case details, Jagdishbhai Solanki was accused of killing his aunt Bhavnaben in 1994 by pouring kerosene over her and then setting her ablaze.
The incident took place in Bhavnagar on November 27, 1994, and she succumbed to burn injuries on December 2 in the hospital. During her treatment, her dying declaration was recorded. In 1995, a sessions court in Bhavnagar acquitted Solanki by not accepting the dying declaration and by terming it a tutored one.
This acquittal was challenged by the state government in the HC. Around 28 years later, a bench of Justice A Y Kogje and Justice M R Mengdey heard the appeal and set the order of Solanki's acquittal aside.
In quashing the acquittal, the bench upheld the validity of the victim's dying declaration.
The HC was critical of the trial court for rejecting it by relying on the testimony of a hostile witness.
The HC ruled out the doubts raised by the defense lawyer about the evidence regarding the recording of the dying declaration.
The bench said, "This court is of the view that the dying declaration is proved beyond reasonable doubt and is a substantive piece of evidence... is wholly reliable."
The bench also pulled up the trial court for posing a certain question to witnesses, which was "completely uncalled for and appears to have been made for driving the witness to answer only in a particular manner".
After quashing the order of acquittal, the bench said that it found sufficient evidence to convict Solanki under Section 304 of the IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and charged him for the same. It issued a notice to Solanki, asking him to reply to the charge on April 26.