Criminal appeal no-2 of 2018
The high court of judicature at Bombay
BENCH: Hon’ble B.P. Dharmadhikari J., Hon’ble Prakash D. Naik J.
DATE OF JUDGEMENT: 30-04-2019
BRANCH OF FORENSIC SCIENCE: Voice analysis ( Forensic Physics)
RELEVANT SECTIONS/ACTS:
Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860
- Section 302- Punishment for murder.
Indian Evidence Act,1872
- Section 27 -How much of information received from accused may be proved.
BACK STORY
This is the brutal murder case of the Pallavi, aged about 34 and Vishal, aged about 6 years who occupying Northern side ground floor portion on rent in the house of Rangnath Shinde and a Front portion of the ground floor is in the occupation of accused Ramdas who is the son of Rangnath Shinde.
On 18/4/2016, PW-1 Kacharu Sansare lodged the F.I.R in Sapur police station regarding the double murder case of his wife (Deceased Pallavi), aged 34 and his son Vishal, aged about 6 years at 8:30 a.m. This brutal murder case took place on the night of 17-4-2016 – 18-4-2016. On 18-4-2016, when (PW-1) was returning home from his night shift duty he found that door was locked from outside and then enquired the sister and other relatives of his wife. After that Vinod (son of the landlord ) told (PW-1) that on 17-4-2016, his house lights were on and PW-5 (Dipali) also heard the noise of quarrel and scuffle from their house, then (PW-1) along with his nephew Rajendra entered the house by breaking the window of the house and (PW-1) found the multiple stabs on the body of his son and wife. They both were dead.
During the investigation, accused (Ramdas) told before IO Gaikwad regarding his call details with his friend Subhash Rajput (PW-9), the first call was made at 3:28 a.m. on 18-4-2016 for 1 min 28 sec and 2nd call was made on some day at 3:30 a.m for 1 min. On 19-4-2016, the accused (Ramdas) was arrested at 2:05 p.m. in a double murder case. On 1-5-2016 accused phone was seized. Then the (PW-14) Bala Ajagase seized the mobile phone of Subhash containing 2 sim cards one was of Vodafone Company while the other was od Airtel Company and PW-17 Pradip Thakur transfer the mobile data of PW-9, Subhash to pen drive and then sent these digital evidence to the IO for further voice identification spectrographic analysis. Police also seized the knife, half pant Bermuda, a steel key of medium size.
VOICE IDENTIFICATION:
On 3/5/2016, three articles forwarded by Mahesh Nandurdikar who obtain the specimen voice sample of accused (Ramda) (EX-2) and his friend Subhash Rajput(PW-9)(EX-2) in a sealed condition, one was Samsung Galaxy Mobile, second was pen drive and third was memory card(EX-3) analyzed by the spectrographic expert of voice by Mahesh Gangurde(PW 22 ), Scientific Officer in Regional Forensic Science Laboratory, Nashik and mention in his report that he analyzed Exh. 1, 2 and 3 with the help of software namely ‘Multyspeech’ and ‘Goldwave and he segregated two sounds with the help of ‘Goldwave’ software He then performed spectrography with the help of ‘Multyspeech’ software to compare the voice samples of the specimen and questioned voice in memory card The report of his analysis shows that the questioned voice exhibited of speaker marked Exh. 1 and 2 are similar to specimen voice exhibited of speaker marked Exh. 3
But the Shubash told that there was noise due to network problems but the report shows a clear voice which created doubt on the voice identification report of experts.
JUDGMENT
The state does not prove circumstances relevant to form a chain by cogent and convincing evidence. As the material on record does not form a chain so complete as to indicate respondent Ramdas as the only accused person and does not rule out the involvement of anybody else, we are inclined to give benefit of doubt to accused Ramdas. Therefore court allow the appeal of the appellant (Ramdas) and disposed of the punishment of sentencing the Ramdas to death under section 302 IPC.