Criminal Appeal No. 747 Of 2018
High Court of Judicature at Bombay
BENCH: Hon’ble Mr. B.P. Dharmadhikari J., Hon’ble Mrs. Swapna Joshi J.
DATE OF JUDGMENT: 14-08-2019
BRANCH OF FORENSIC SCIENCE: Voice analysis (Forensic Physics)
RELEVANT SECTIONS:
Indian Penal Act (IPC), 1860
- Section 302 – Punishment for murder.
- Section 363 – Punishment for kidnapping.
- Section 364(A) – Kidnapping or abducting in order to murder
- Section 201- Causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender.
- Section 34 – Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention.
- Section 120 – Concealing design to commit offence punishable with imprisonment.
BACK STORY
On 27-5-12, The F.I.R. was lodged by employee Ravindra on behalf of PW 1 Rajesh (PW-1)( Father of deceased) at Shahu Nagar Police Station indicating the fact that the son of Rajesh went missing from the night of 26 -7-12 from about 7:00 p.m and
It is a brutal murder case of the victim by accused (1-5) namely Imtiyaz, Azad, Issar, Arsil, and one juvenile who was the main accused in this heinous crime. Rajesh returned along with his family on 28/5/2012. It started searching victim (his son) by contacting his friends and persons in acquaintance with the victim and then while returning from Mumbai to Ajmer at 5.00 a.m. on 26/5/2012 he received a phone call at about 10.15 p.m. demanding a ransom of Rs.25 lakhs. On 1/6/2012, the ransom call reported by PW-1, and then the Investigating Officer PW-20 provided a Nokia mobile with a recording facility to PW-1 to record Conversations between informant (PW1) and the person making the demand. Police found that the calls were coming from the Bhiwandi area then on 5/6/2012 accused Nos.1, 3, and 4 were apprehended from Bhiwandi, accused No.2 from Dharavi and accused No.5 from Mandla village at Mankhurd.
In the search, the police found the 8 SIMs card and 3 handsets which were not registered by the name of the accused which forwarded to the CFSL for audio analysis of the CDRs and the comparison of the voice.
On 6/6/12, Body of the victim identified with the help of accused no 2 who disclosed that victim dead body found in the gutter (main hole) and then (PW-1) called to come at the Shahu Nagar Police station to identify the body of the victim when father of deceased was in Kurla Crime branch Unit with the investigative agency officers.
VOICE IDENTIFICATION REPORT
The recorded conversations obtained by (PW-14) Mr. Suresh of accused No.1. send for the voice analysis was sent to the Central Bureau of Forensic Science Laboratory Mukesh Kumar as Scientific Officer. (PW-14) and the spectrograph report of voice comparison shows that mentions one cellphone and one battery in which 2 memory card one is of ‘Moserbaer 2GB’ and other of ‘Bail 4GB’ containing the speech recording of the accused stated to be specimen voice of the accused. In contrast, the cell phone of (PW-1) voice contains the questioned voice of the ransom caller (Accused no 1). The auditory analysis and subsequent spectrographic analysis reveal that the questioned voice is similar to a specimen voice.
With this background, each circumstance’s proved by the cogent and convincing evidence and witnesses and the conviction based on the circumstantial evidence trial court has based its judgment on the circumstances –
- A previous acquaintance of PW 1 Rajesh (father of the deceased child) with accused nos. 1 and 2 as they were/are employees.
- Deceased was last seen alive with the accused persons on 27/05/2012.
- Call demanding ransom was received by PW 1 Rajesh Bhadange (father of deceased child victim) on his mobile from the unknown numbers.
- An employee of PW 1 by name Yogesh Patange identified the voice of caller as that of Imtiyaz.
The spectrographic analysis or audio-metric analysis its relevance because the voice sample only of accused no. 1 Imtiyaz was obtained voice sample of other accused persons not obtained.
JUDGMENT
- After the arrest of accused no. 1, mobile handsets with IMEI number from which calls were made to PW 1 Rajesh was seized from him. Similarly, un-used SIM cards were also seized from him.
- Call Data Records i.e. CDRs support the calls made by accused no.1 to PW Rajesh demanding ransom.
- The demands made by accused no. 1 recorded in the memory card in Nokia mobile handset given by PW-20 IO Shri Desurkar and Voice in the said conversation matches with the sample voice of accused no. 1 as per CFSL report.
- Accused nos. 1 and 2 led the Panch witnesses and police to the site where the body of deceased child concealed, leading to discovery under section 27 of the Evidence Act.
The charges framed under accused no. 1 Imtiyaz and accused no. 2 Azad for the offence punishable under sections 302, 363, 364-A, 201 read with 34 IPC and sentenced accused no.1 to death and accused no.2 Azad to life imprisonment and fine of Rs.25,000/-, in default of fine he has to suffer RI for one year. For the offence punishable under section 364A, both the accused persons sentenced to suffer life imprisonment for the rest of their life and fine of Rs.25000/- each in default of fine; they have to undergo RI for one year. Original accused no. 3 found to be a child in conflict with the law and hence, the case against him forwarded to Juvenile Justice Board. Accused no. 4 and 5 i.e. Israr and Arsil are acquitted of the offences punishable under sections 302, 363, 364-A, 201 read with 120B IPC.