In Brief
On November 15, 2004, during a police operation to intercept an alleged smuggling vehicle, Head Constable Jagdish Singh fired a shot that killed Manisha Chauhan. The trial court convicted Singh but acquitted three other constables, finding no evidence of their common intention to commit the crime. The High Court reversed the acquittal, convicting all four based on their presence in the same vehicle. The Supreme Court allowed the appeal, holding that mere presence in a vehicle is insufficient for conviction under Section 34 IPC without proof of prior meeting of minds and shared criminal intention. The court reaffirmed that appellate interference with acquittal requires patent perversity or material misreading of evidence, which was absent here.
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