In Brief
Amrika Bai was convicted by the trial court and the High Court under Section 302 read with Section 149 (murder as part of an unlawful assembly) and Section 147 IPC for her alleged role in catching and holding the deceased to facilitate his murder. The Supreme Court allowed the appeal and acquitted her. The Court found serious inconsistencies in witness testimonies regarding her role; the witnesses were close relatives of the deceased and their accounts contradicted each other about whether she held him or actually assaulted him. The Court held that mere presence in an unlawful assembly without a proven common object of murder cannot sustain conviction, and given the reasonable doubts about her membership in the assembly itself, conviction was unsafe.
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