K.c. Mohammed Khaleel And Another Revision v. State Of Kerala .

P. Somarajan, J.:— It is a case wherein the court below disbelieved the statement of defacto complainant, PW1, in part regarding the allegation of physical assault by slapping against his cheeks, but accepted the remaining part of the same transaction, the alleged wrongful restraint punishable under Section 341 IPC. PW1 is the defacto complainant. He had given evidence that the accused persons prevented him while riding on a bicycle and slapped on his cheeks on the ground of non-issuance of ship ticket in Androth island. PW2 is the only occurrence witness who witnessed the alleged incident, but he deposed against the alleged physical assault, but concurred with the wrongful restraint by forcefully stopping the bicycle of defacto complainant, PW1. Both the courts below had accepted the oral testimony of PW2, the occurrence witness and disbelieved the statement of defacto complainant/PW1 regarding the physical assault. The physical assault and wrongful restraint alleged are part of the very same transaction happened within a spur of moment even according to PW1. The oral evidence tendered by PW2, the independent witness that he had not witnessed physical assault stand against the oral evidence of PW1 and hence cannot be taken as a evidence of corroboration with respect to the remaining part of alleged incident. In short, the oral evidence tendered by PW1 regarding wrongful restraint stood uncorroborated by any acceptable evidence. Hence the conviction rendered based on the interested testimony of PW1 cannot be sustained, especially when the allegation of physical assault was rejected by both the courts below.

2. Criminal Revision Petition is hence allowed. The conviction under Section 341 IPC and the sentence thereon are set aside.