The Tripura High Court has acquitted five persons convicted for assaulting a woman and also set aside the judgments of the trial court and the first appellate court after finding that the prosecution evidence did not establish their involvement in the offence.

A single bench headed by Justice Biswajit Palit, in an order delivered on September 24, allowed the criminal revision petition filed by Tapan Nath, Pintu Nath, Asish Paul, Suman Paul and Radha Vinode Nath. The court set aside the March 6, 2024 judgment of the Sessions Judge, North Tripura, Dharmanagar, which had upheld their conviction by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, North Tripura, Dharmanagar.

The case arose from an FIR lodged by Susmita Nath at Dharmanagar police station on May 29, 2021, alleging that the accused had entered her house and assaulted her and her family members. 

The prosecution had initially filed a charge sheet against five women, but the present petitioners were subsequently implicated during the trial under Section 319 of the CrPC.

The trial court convicted the five petitioners under Section 323 of the IPC and sentenced each to suffer simple imprisonment for 15 days each and a fine of Rs 1,000, with an additional one-week simple imprisonment in default of payment of the fine. The sentences were to run concurrently.

The High Court noted that the informant was the only prosecution witness who supported the case against the petitioners. The court said the prosecution had not produced the informant's brother, who was also alleged to have sustained injuries, or her parents as witnesses.

The court also noted that several other prosecution witnesses did not support the case against the petitioners. The investigating officer was not examined. The medical officer who examined the informant's brother could not establish from his evidence that the examination was related to the case in question, the court observed.

The High Court further noted that the investigating officer had initially sought discharge of the present petitioners after completing the investigation, while the charge sheet had been filed against five women. It also observed that the prosecution witnesses, apart from the informant, had not implicated the petitioners in the alleged offence.

The court held that the judgments of the trial court and the first appellate court suffered from infirmities and perversity and that the conviction and sentence could not be sustained in the absence of sufficient evidence.

The High Court accordingly acquitted all five petitioners and directed that their sureties be discharged.