NEW YORK (JTA) — Eve Goldberg's son, Isaac, was in a panic. He had to get out of college.
Isaac Goldberg Volkmar had been at the University of Rhode Island for less than a semester in 2009 when he called his mother desperate to escape. He had joined a fraternity, where his brothers got him to take the pain medications Percocet and OxyContin. After a few months the New York teen knew he was addicted and needed help.
From there, Isaac was in and out of rehab in Pennsylvania and New York. He overdosed the summer after freshman year. At one point, a family friend burst into Eve's apartment, where she found Isaac turning blue and had him rushed to the hospital.
Isaac grew up in what his mother calls a normal Jewish home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The family had no history of addiction, so by 2013, when Isaac was recovered and working as a basketball coach at the United Nations International School in Manhattan, Goldberg hoped the worst was behind him. He was even set to move into his own apartment.
But Isaac began acting anxious that Thanksgiving. He woke up his mother in the middle of the night looking for aspirin. In December, Goldberg walked into his room and found him unresponsive, overdosed on opioids. He died after six weeks in a coma; he was 23 years old.
Last year, Goldberg founded BigVision, a community for young adults in recovery from addiction, where participants get together twice a month to do activities like riding go-karts, knitting or playing basketball. It's one of several Jewish initiatives nationwide to combat addiction, especially as opioid abuse increases across the country.
Death from opioids — from prescription painkillers like OxyContin to controlled substances like heroin — has increased in the United States since 2000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2014, nearly 30,000 people died from opioid overdose in America, a 14 percent jump from the previous year. And while data among American Jews is hard to come by, statistics show a rise there, too.
More than 20 Orthodox Jews have died from opioid overdoses since last Rosh Hashanah in the New York area, according to Zvi Gluck, who runs Amudim, an organization that helps addicts find treatment. At Beit T'Shuvah, a Jewish long-term residential recovery center in Los Angeles, applications have risen 50 percent in the past year, from 400-500 to 600-800, which Rabbi Mark Borovitz, the center's head rabbi, attributes to opioid addiction.
Borovitz and Gluck both say typically middle-class American Jews are more susceptible to opioid addiction because painkillers are accessible in an otherwise safe environment, where hard drugs may not otherwise be present. Borovitz, like Goldberg, also attributes the rise in abuse to the overprescription of medications.
The journal JAMA Psychiatry reports that heroin use is no longer an inner-city, minority-centered problem but one "increasingly affecting white men and women in their late 20s living outside of large urban areas." Heroin use is also up because because the opiate is less expensive and often easier to obtain than prescription opioids.
Operation Survival, which has worked to prevent drug abuse among the Chabad-Lubavitch and non-Jewish community in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn since 1988, launched the Opioid Overdose Prevention Program in May. The program trains people to administer naloxone, a drug that blocks or reverses the effects of an opioid overdose if given quickly enough.
A range of other groups are offering Jewish responses to addiction in general and opioid abuse in particular. In Brooklyn, The Safe Foundation gives lectures at Jewish schools about the dangers of drug and gambling addiction, and provides outpatient treatment. The Chabad Residential Treatment Center in Los Angeles treats men for substance abuse. In southeastern Pennsylvania, Rabbi Yosef Lipsker serves as an addiction counselor at the Caron Treatment Center, where he has provided religious resources and counseling to 5,000 Jewish patients since 1999.
Orthodox Jews combating addiction say that while the Orthodox community used to deny drug abuse was a problem, more people have sought treatment as stories of overdose deaths have spread. Gluck said that while an insular community can perpetuate the problem by trying to hide it, the community can also offer stronger support once the problem is acknowledged.
Some of the Jewish counselors add a Jewish tint to the recovery process. Lipsker has Jewish patients at his home each week for Friday night dinner and provides kosher food to observant patients. Borovitz relates the weekly Torah portion to recovery in his weekly sermon — drawing a connection, for example, between God's encounter with Adam in the Garden of Eden and an addict acknowledging he has a problem.
Eve Goldberg hopes to grow BigVision to the point where she can open a permanent community center for recovering addicts in New York City. Her group is open to Jews and non-Jews alike, but she said Jewish parents of addicts need to be more open about acknowledging opioid addiction and seeking help for their children.


ARE YOU LOOKING FOR THE BEST PRACTICES FOR GENERATING REAL ESTATE LEADS ONLINE? GET STARTED TODAY WITH REAL ESTATE LEAD GENERATION PROGRAMS!
Keep a checklist of individuals who have called you on-line. These are people you have actually not satisfied, or haven't fulfilled yet, but that might be leads. Turn them from unfamiliar people right into leads by tempting them with promotions that attract new consumers. For example, a very first month complimentary promotion, no set up costs, or cost-free installment are all promos that apply to new customers, as opposed to repeat ones.
REAL ESTATE LEAD GENERATION PROGRAMS is a critically important component of the sales process. Marketers ought to be able to gather leads via a selection of methods, both online as well as off, in order to discover even more potential customers. Your goal ought to be to collect as several e-mail addresses and telephone number as feasible. Take a look at the adhering to steps to help you create leads.


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Q: How can I get a bunch of 1-UPs in New Super Mario Bros(DS)? I need to rack up a bunch of free lives in New Super Mario Bros (Nintendo DS).  What is the fastest technique to get a bunch of 1ups / free lives?  (Will the staircase + koopa trick work in NSMB?  Where's the best staircase for this?)

A: It's been a while, but I liked playing the first level over and over. It has a Mega Mushroom in it. What you do is let the mushroom out, but don't get it immediately - let it scroll right until it almost falls into a pit. Then pick it up and run like crazy to the right. You'll get a bunch of 1-Ups, including when you smash through the ending flag.
Repeat!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Best Flowers For A Small Cutting Patch.
Not everyone has acres of space for a glorious and expansive cut flower garden but with careful planning you can have a productive patch with just a few stolen square metres. The key is to chose 'Cut & come again flowers', these are flowers which you can keep on harvesting all summer long. Annuals are the kings of this game….perennials tend to have just two flushes, so they have no part in a small cutting patch.
I have chosen the following eight beauties for the perfect modest patch. I have a 'Flowers For A Small Cut Flower Patch' collection…the collection has 20% knocked off the collective price…this price includes free shipping too. These flowers will produce heaps and heaps of flowers. As a rule of thumb you will want nine plants per square metre…a 3 x 3 grid.
Good old Cerinthe…bees love it too.
Nicotiana 'Lime Green' this is a MUST have.
Corncockle…a rare sight in the wild these days.
Craspedia 'Drumstick', A Welcome Newcomer To The Cutting Patch.	Cut Flower Garden Greats: Cosmos 'Purity'.


This beautiful frosted pillar candle from Ruddick Garden Gifts is available in three colours, white, heather or blue. This small pillar candle has been made from 100% natural palm wax and is hand poured providing a high quality candle with a clean, smokeless and virtually drip free burn. Each candle has solid colour wax throughout and a pure cotton wick. Burn time of approximately 42 hours.


We kindly ask for your careful decision upon purchase. All products we ship are guaranteed brand new items. We do not re-sell and therefore do not accept unwanted return. Please kindly understand our policy is to make sure that all products we deliver are clean, fresh and brand new.
When a product you ordered is sold out, we refund that item amount and notify you via e-mail.
For an order with multiple items, items with stock will still be sent.
In case, after deducting the value of the sold-out product, your net purchase amount becomes less than the free shipping minimum requirement, you will not be charged for additional shipping fee.
Due to the fast-paced fashion and cosmetics industry in Korea, popular products sold out quickly. We try our best to efficiently notify our customers and update our system to prevent such cases, but because MKM runs a zero-inventory system to offer better prices to our customers, out of stock cases are sometimes inevitable.
We sincerely apologize for such inconvenience caused.


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ODE Infinity
ODE is the first vertically integrated SaaS consumer data platform with a mission to change the world of consumer data privacy, lean data science and organic compliance. Built on blockchain and AI, ODE Infinity defines a new paradigm for digital engagement for enterprises. We are a passionate and ambitious team with the required balance of innovation, entrepreneurship and enterprise experience with Fortune 100 and successful exits.
The current data supply chain is fragmented, archaic, and unethical and it is time for a new entrant to shape the future by disrupting it and dis-intermediating the data brokers to enable a direct and trusted relationship between enterprises and their digital consumers. We have built a significant demand across the world and are looking to launch our pilots later this year targeting 3 million users, and expect to achieve our financial targets ahead of schedule.
We are excited about our journey and the traction we've achieved to date and are aligning with like-minded partners to effectuate an Open Data Economy that is both meaningful and rewarding.
🔗ODE and ThreeFold
The partnership of the ODE Consumer Data ecosystem with ThreeFold's ultra-secure, sovereign, scalable, and decentralized infrastructure platform is a complementary pairing which will empower a data economy focused on sovereignty, privacy, equality, and sustainability. The two companies are inspired by a shared mission of creating greater wealth distribution and equal opportunity for all of humanity to partake in this data economy.
ODE provides a solution that is secure, scalable, and will operate on Threefold's cost-effective global infrastructure platform that complements the key attributes of ODE. ODE meets the attributes demanded by customers and actuates attributes including data sovereignty and privacy, true decentralization, no lock in, scalability, and ultra-security.
ThreeFold technology and the ThreeFold Grid offers an ideal infrastructure platform and meets these exact attributes demanded by the customers today. ThreeFold brings a truly decentralized compute and storage network that ensures the privacy and sovereignty of customer data, a quantum safe file system, scalability, cost efficiency, and ultimately a digital infrastructure.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


While we wait four additional days for the unveiling of Google Books Settlement 2.0, a post by blogger Chris Bour takes me back, in a serious way, to my recent whimsical discovery that my first national magazine article ("The Game I'll Never Forget," by France Laux as told to Irv Muchnick, Baseball Digest, June 1970) is available on Google Books.
This area brings my work as an activist on this issue full circle. In 1994, I led a group of National Writers Union members in confronting a fledgling fax-on-demand article delivery service called UnCover, an affiliate of a for-profit spinoff of the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries. UnCover became the first licensee of an even more fledgling collective licensing agency, called Publication Rights Clearinghouse, which I launched for the NWU during my period as its assistant director (1994-97).
In 1997 I left the NWU staff, mostly because Publication Rights Clearinghouse was going nowhere and because I felt UnCover, a dead-bang infringer that was supposed to be working with us to expand it, was instead blowing us off after milking its PR value. I became a copyright litigation consultant and packaged a case against UnCover, Ryan v. CARL, that settled in 2000 for $7.25 million.
Much more recently, with the Google Books settlement in suspense and with the Reed Elsevier v. Muchnick (or "Freelance") case at the Supreme Court on a technical jurisdictional question, I wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder to propose that the Justice Department, which had just intervened constructively in the Google case, now use its good offices to coordinate the Google and Freelance cases. The two cases involve the same root issue: the reuse, without permission or compensation, of previously published authors' works.
Meanwhile, all of you freelance magazine writers out there can follow the growth of Google Books for yourselves, and get as creeped out as I was when I learned that an obscure 39-year-old article of mine, written when I was 15, is already part of the system.
I've already opted out of this so-called settlement. They had scanned in both my current novel and my MFA Thesis from the Iowa Writers Workshop despite a promise from the University of Iowa that creative thesis' would not be be put into electronic databases.
You will recall the proposal I made for a copyright small claims court in the September-October issue of the Columbia Journalism Review? It appeared in Britannica Online, despite the fact that I sold it to CJR on a first serial rights basis only. (They were not willing to pay for all rights). It was provided by EBSCO and will be taken down, but here we go again! Why should I have to police these databases? Especially when the article in question is about copyright and is titled "STOP THIEF!"
To give the devil his due, Google Books can be a valuable research tool when you are looking for material in the Public Domain that is hard to find. Several years ago I paid a university library fifty dollars for a subscription so I could access a book that only they had. I felt ripped off, because libraries are supposed to be a "public good" and they get lots of taxpayer dollars at all levels to support their operations. I figured I was paying twice. Now I can find those rare 19th Century sources online from my home computer, for free. The problem is that the leadership at Google are a bunch of techies who have no real concept of the work required to create a book. Without copyright protection and royalties few can afford to do this. All of the rhetoric about the wonderful benefits of "free" notwithstanding, bills have to be paid. If Google had simply stopped with the Public Domain (1923 and before) then they would have saved everyone much grief over this issue. But, because it was easy to do, they decided they would take it all and wait for people to object. As for "orphan works" let me point out that there is a healthy market in used books where such needs can be fulfilled and that libraries already have leave under the Copyright Act to make up to three copies of rare books for customers.


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Technique Clinics
Why is Goldfish Swim School Bright and Colorful? (There's a reason, really!)
Student's Stories
At Goldfish Swim School, we're focused on teaching kids to swim and be safe in and around the water. But, we also know that having a colorful environment makes it more fun for kids to learn such an important, lifelong skill.
Why colors matter
Imagine walking into your physician's office for a doctor's appointment. The walls are stark white, or perhaps a subtle beige, and there's nothing exciting in the room except for a pile of magazines. Everything is a bit bland and boring. What's your mood like?
Now imagine you walk into the office to discover the walls painted a subtle, soft yellow, and decorative touches like couch pillows, plants and artwork add other calming colors to the room. Now how do you feel? Much more relaxed, right? (Well, as much as you can be in a doctor's office!)
You've heard about it before: Paint a room with red accents to encourage energy and stimulation, or perhaps a light blue to evoke a soothing vibe. Why? We're conditioned from a young age to make connections with certain colors and feelings.
Think about the seasons. They all have certain colors connected with them, and those colors help you feel the seasons, don't they? For instance, spring colors – such as green grass, yellow tulips, purple flowers – are all about new life popping up and the ending of the drab winter.
Behind the Goldfish tropical colors
Chris and Jenny McCuiston, co-founders of Goldfish Swim School Franchising, LLC, knew from the start that they wanted to make sure Goldfish Swim School didn't look like every other swim facility out there. Inspired by their honeymoon in Hawaii, Chris and Jenny drafted the vision of what Goldfish Swim School would look like based off those colors – and the feelings evoked.
"We thought, we need to create a sense of calming, a sense of peace, with vibrant colors," Chris said. So they started researching pictures of the Caribbean and Hawaii and explored what colors worked well together – and thought, "Can kids relate to this? Can parents get comfortable with this?"
Michigan, where Goldfish Swim School began, is far from tropical. Chris said he and Jenny wanted to make sure everyone could feel like they were on a Hawaiian beach or Caribbean pool while being at Goldfish Swim School. Beyond just the typical blues and greens of tropical places, Chris said they wanted to have a lot of color – and colors that would pop. That's where the pinks and oranges came in as well.
"You want to walk into a facility and just get it," Chris said.
Every color in the rainbow can be connected to evoking certain feelings and emotions, so why not take advantage of that in the best way possible at each Goldfish Swim School? We want learning how to swim to be fun, so kids have a GOLDEN experience every time. Vibrant colors help kids – young and old alike – bring out their inner boldness and confidence, to inspire and motivate, which produces those extraordinary results we love to celebrate!
Enjoy swimming at Goldfish Swim School
You'll notice right away how Goldfish Swim School has a different vibe – but when you visit the location near you, you'll also notice our WOW! customer service. And you can be confident that our instructors use integrity, compassion and trust in working with kids to teach them how to swim (including kids with special needs, so be sure to talk to us about any concerns).
Posted By Goldfish Swim School
Parent Tip: 3 Ways Swimming Benefits Total Baby Health and Wellness
At Goldfish Swim School, we're committed to using integrity, compassion and trust to teach children how to swim and be safer in and around the water – but the benefits of swimming go way beyond that. And, it can give you some extraordinary results as a parent, too!
Bath time: More than just getting clean
Baths are awesome, especially for little ones! At Goldfish Swim School, we may be a little partial to all things having to do with water – but did you know how much baths can impact your little ones? Read our latest blog post to find out more!
Bonding with Kids: A Year in Review of Their Fave Moments
As the end of the year draws near, it's time to take stock of the year that has passed before jumping in to celebrate the new year and make resolutions – and it's a great thing to do with your kids!
Troy,MI 48084
Program Free Intro Classes Swim Lessons Family Swim Swim Team Parties Jump Start Clinics Technique Clinics Perpetual Lessons About Our Philosophy Our Story Our Facility Testimonials Contact Us Other FAQ Blog Contact Careers Privacy Policy


Zsite 4.3 Beta+ has security settings. You can do basic security settings, attachment settings, and sensitive term settings. Let's see how basic security settings are done.
Sensitive Words setting means whether sensitive words will be detected and filtered.


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MONSTER FEST To Screen THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT In NZ
Staff Writer March 13, 2019
MONSTER FEST Presents in association with Umbrella Films will release THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT Complete & Uncut to select New Zealand cinemas on Thursday April 4th.
THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT had its Australian Premiere at Monster Fest Travelling Sideshow in Perth last year and went on to play two sold-out festival screenings at last November's Monster Fest VII: The Homecoming in Melbourne, where it was also awarded 'Best Director' at the closing night awards ceremony.
Lars von Trier's disturbing drama follows the highly intelligent Jack (Matt Dillon) over a span of 12 years and introduces the murders that define Jack's development as a serial killer. Taking place from Jack's point of view as he postulates each murder as an artwork in itself. Inevitably as police intervention draws near, he takes greater and greater risks in his attempt to create the ultimate masterwork.
Despite recent international controversy and a censored version being released theatrically overseas, Umbrella Films remain committed to presenting Lars von Trier's artistic work uncompromised by unleashing the Complete and UNCUT version to cinemas on April 4th.
RIALTO CINEMAS (NEWMARKET)
RIALTO CINEMAS (DUNEDIN) – Advance Screenings March 29th, 30th & 31st
ALICE CINEMA (CHRISTCHURCH)
MONTERREY CINEMAS (BRIDGEWAY)
MONTERREY CINEMAS (TUARANGA)
MONTERREY CINEMAS (UPPER HUTT)
MONTERREY CINEMAS (HOWICK)
Staff writers are responsible for putting up the latest news, interviews and reviews on the website. HEAVY Staff Writers are the heart of HEAVY.
The Popcorn Conspiracy Ep #030 – "THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT"
The Greatest Fight Of BEASTWARS
MONSTER FEST to expand right across Australia
Film Review: Lords Of Chaos
More Cinemas To Screen LORDS OF CHAOS
Lars von Trier Matt Dillion Monster Fest Monster Pictures New Zealand The House That Jack Built


On Saturday, September 15th at 4:00 pm, everyone is invited to a special earth-centered Mabon service marking the Autumnal Equinox and the beginning of the harvest season, and celebrating local folklore and Earth-centered spirituality. The service will begin at the Crimson Dawn parking lot with a processional to the Woodland Theater. We'll be gathering sage and make sage bundles. Service Leader Athne Machdane.
Come just for the service, or fully explore Crimson Dawn by enjoying any or all of the other activities planned, including hiking the trails or touring the museum from 3:00 to 4:00 pm, potluck dinner at 5:00 pm, and an optional tour through the Park shrines at 6:30 pm. Please remember to bring water and jackets, and blankets are recommended to cover the log benches at the Theater. Everyone is welcome, including well-behaved and leashed pets. If you would like to carpool up the mountain, please email info@uucasper.org, or call Laura at 307-259-4469.


When it comes to careers, we are focused on one thing: connecting people who want to work in the beauty industry with companies who need them.
From Freelancers to Founders. From Consultants to CEO's. The Beauty Scout is your go-to resource for connecting and collaborating with fellow beauty industry talent.
How we do things around here is a little different. Of course we leverage technology, but more importantly, we help you develop relationships. We firmly believe that relationships beat resumes. Every time.


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In Romeo and Juliet, what does it mean by "A visor for a visor" in act 1, scene 4?
Pauline Sheehan
In Romeo and Juliet, the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets will only be resolved after Romeo and Juliet's love for each other result in their deaths.
Romeo, not yet having laid eyes on Juliet and besotted with Rosaline (who refuses to return his love), plans to...
Romeo, not yet having laid eyes on Juliet and besotted with Rosaline (who refuses to return his love), plans to attend the Capulet ball uninvited because he knows that Rosaline will be there. He is discussing his situation with his friend Mercutio in Act I, scene iv as they are on their way to the Capulet's ball. Romeo thinks love is very hard and his "soul of lead" (15) indicates how stressed he is; he is convinced that "Under love's heavy burden do I sink" (22). Mercutio recognizes Romeo's feelings for Rosaline as not indicative of real love. It is in his nature to mock love as he finds a far more practical use for it and suggests that Romeo should do the same. Much of what he says has connotations of a sexual nature. Lovelorn Romeo does not think he is in the mood for the festivities that will follow shortly at the ball.
As they are attending a ball, they are carrying masks, a tradition of the time. Mercutio says, "A visor for a visor!" (30). Mercutio is pointing out that in real life, he already effectively wears a mask, not revealing his true self. He is now swapping this "visor" or mask for another—the real mask he will wear to the ball. Both conceal the person behind them.
lmillerm
*All quotes are taken from The Norton Shakespeare, based on the Oxford Edition.
Mercutio's quote reads: "Give me a case to put my visage in,/A visor for a visor."
Interpretation: "Give me a mask to put my face in,/A mask to cover my mask." Mercutio is referring to his own appearance, which he believes is ugly and unattractive. Mercutio wants an attractive mask to hide his ugliness.
In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet is 13, but how old is Romeo?
What are four puns from act 1, scene 4 (Queen Mab speech) of Romeo and Juliet?
What is the exact age difference between Romeo and Juliet? I know she was older than him, but what are their ages?
What does Mercutio mean when he says, "Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man"?
In act 1, scene 5 of Romeo and Juliet, how does Tybalt react to Romeo's presence at the party, and what does Lord Capulet say about Romeo?
Explain Romeo's speech in act 1, scene 4 of Romeo and Juliet (lines 106–113).
Latest answer posted June 03, 2020 at 2:32:28 PM
What is a literary device in act 4, scene 4 of Romeo and Juliet?
Latest answer posted March 23, 2021 at 10:49:28 AM
To what does Romeo compare Juliet in act 1, scene 5 of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet?
Latest answer posted May 15, 2020 at 12:06:49 AM
What was Romeo's view of love in act 1, scenes 1–3 of Romeo and Juliet?
Latest answer posted February 27, 2020 at 5:49:11 PM
In act 2, scene 4 of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, what does Tybalt send to Romeo's house?


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home » results » rrd partner michael r. young obtains defense verdict in van vs. pedestrian accident case
RRD Partner Michael R. Young Obtains Defense Verdict in Van vs. Pedestrian Accident Case
RRD Partner Michael R. Young won a defense verdict in a jury trial arising out of an alleged collision between a van and a pedestrian. The defendant passed away during the pendency of the lawsuit and his estate was substituted as the party defendant. As a result, there was only limited evidence to rebut the plaintiff's testimony that he was standing in a parking lot talking to his friend when the defendant, while reversing his van out of a parking space, backed into him forcing him to the ground. The plaintiff alleged that he sustained multiple injuries including an epicondyle fracture, neck sprain and multiple cuts/bruises. The plaintiff produced a witness who corroborated his account that a van hit him in the same parking lot on the same date and that he suffered multiple injuries. Despite plaintiff's testimony that the defendant exited the van after the incident, Attorney Young was able to raise some questions as to whether the incident happened as alleged by the plaintiff. Attorney Young was able to create some inconsistences between the plaintiff and witness' account that cast doubt on the veracity of plaintiff's claims. Attorney Young also was able to use the limited evidence to convince the jury that the appropriate ruling was in favor of the defendant.
In closing argument, the plaintiff asked the jury for $100,000. The jury returned a verdict for the defendant in less than two hours.
Michael R. Young


Is this cheating? Because I basically already wrote this post when I shared how to create Australopithecus fan art for your unborn. The only real difference is that today I stitched a moody portrait of Tom Waits instead of an extinct genus of hominid.
2. Tape the drawing onto your material. I usually stitch on felt, but any fabric will do.
3. Prick an inky pen through the lines of the drawing, to create dots on the felt (which you'll later connect with embroidery floss).
4. Remove the drawing. Thread your weird big needle with embroidery floss (here's a cool video on how to do that).One strand of embroidery floss is composed of six little threads. I separate one long piece into two long pieces with three threads each, because the thread gets doubled-over and you don't want it to be too thick.
5. Start stitching. You're basically just connecting the dots.
You'll need to tie off your thread when it gets low and re-up your needle a few times to get everything sewn.
6. That's it! Add some freehand text if you want, like this quote which I don't think is actually accurate? Close enough.
7. Frame your masterpiece and reward yourself with two pieces of sourdough toast with butter and strawberry jam, like I did.
I made this little guy for my favorite person's husband, who is graduating from business school tomorrow (his favorite musician is Tom Waits). Is there any gift nicer than a janky, homemade craft? I don't think so.
If you're not up to making one of your own, I'll stitch your favorite celebrity, frame it, and mail it to you for two twenty dollar bills. Email me at eringoosecamp at gmail and we'll talk.
The most fun part of pregnancy by far (besides envisioning my spawn- I'm supposed to say that's number one, right?) has been designing, building, DIYing, and shopping for the nursery. I'm so excited to finally share her little room!
This room means so much to me. It's turned into a little projection of everything I want for my girl.


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How will COVID-19 pandemic affect your business?
Uroš Mihelčič
Head of Business Digitalization
uros.mihelcic@allchemist.net
Adapt & Overcome Business Covid-19 Digital transformation Industry Future
A lot has changed in our everyday life and even more in the way we do business. The first challenge the Allchemist team had to face was a complete transition to home office work. We knew this would put some organizational strain on management and customer-facing relations. The transition, however, was seamless and we continue to perform at our best without any meaningful issues.
But we are aware that not everyone was so lucky or successful in adapting to this new reality of how they do business as we were. That was of course not a direct result of management decisions or willingness of managers to drive the business forward. They were in major part due to technology that is not always up to date with the current demands of society. Of course, you would have to plan for this kind of pandemic, which was just yesterday unimaginable, to be completely ready.
Nevertheless, one quote comes to mind that really sums up most of our current struggles: "If we have learned anything from the speed at which our lives have changed, it is that we cannot allow our ability to respond to be limited by our ability to execute due to outdated technology."
But we are not in a moment when we can shrug our shoulders and accept reality.
We are in a moment where actions matter most for us to be successful as a business when we exit this reality.
Adapting to a new reality
Recent McKinsey article discusses ways that COVID-19 pandemic will affect business and changes that we will need to go through in order to successfully combat the changes of the business environment that COVID-19 will inevitably leave behind.
Going forward we will observe three stages of adaptations:
managers will have to provide stability and continuity of business throughout the crisis,
then institutionalize new ways of working
and finally using learning from this crisis to prioritize tech transformation for resilience.
Three waves of change resonate especially now that we are detached from our everyday work environment.
We realize that even though we have been preparing for remote access, digital world, IoT, we all haven't quite imagined what it will mean to detach completely from old ways of doing things.
Being away from all our resources such as research data, technical support information, product information and even something as basic as face to face sales visits is something that will make us rethink our ways going forward.
The first step, however, is stabilizing the business and making sure that there will be a tomorrow that we can build towards.
Now is the time to move forward
In any stressful situation however, we try to revert to the old ways, do the business the way we know it works. But those who best keep the focus on future projects and customer-centric approaches will, in the end, have the edge.
So, change to some extent is inevitable if we want to be successful.
Dropping all the projects that seem redundant strain on cash flow and doing just business, as usual, could mean that not very far down the line we will be missing a lot of momentum.
The crisis is also a time when we have an opportunity to review new disruptive formats and new channels to determine long term channels that will fuel the business. Prioritizing this tech transformation for resilience is one of the key efforts for every company and planning adoption within an organization is one of the harder tasks.
That's why the change we face today is not just cultural, it's also technological so one of the most important roles in this process is CIO, your Chief Information Officer. Aligning expectations and driving the process forward will take a lot of onboarding and strong support from top management. But once decisions are made to adopt new ways to better suit new reality, CIO will be at the core of these efforts, translating business processes to the business path to success. Yet keeping the right pace with changing organizational needs and still striving to be proactive on security will be a challenge. That's why onboarding everyone in this process is one of the key efforts at the start of every transformation. Get buy-in then move forward. It's easier to push progress forward when you don't have to push people too.
Be among those that adapt
It's not necessary to be the first at something new but it helps. Jeff Bezos has this to say about technology adoption: "I believe you have to be willing to be misunderstood if you're going to innovate".
Fortunately [or unfortunately] we have been pushed into innovation by a spread of a virus that swept across the globe just in a couple of weeks. But this does not mean we're out of solutions.
Solutions are everywhere, we just have to make a decision to be among those that will adopt new ways of doing business that has inevitably become a part of our lives.
We can start by reviewing our processes, thinking of ways of doing things more efficiently. Then start looking for solutions that seamlessly integrate into our business but change us just enough so we can be effective in this new environment. That's why surrounding yourself with people that understand the importance of change management and all along maintaining the security, is very important. And during this process keeping in mind that discussing openly any obstacles we face or expect to face will make any adoption much easier.
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Thanks for your interest in the Aberdeen Chamber Orchestra. Please leave your message below.
The Aberdeen Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1982 by a group of friends who had known each other at school and university in the city. The idea was to promote a small-scale concert for the enjoyment of the players, friends and relatives. The concert was such a success that the members decided that they wanted to meet again and thus the Chamber Orchestra was born. Since then, the ACO has gone on to establish itself at the forefront of amateur orchestral playing in Aberdeen.
In its earlier days, the ACO restricted itself to the smaller classical orchestral works, with the occasional brave excursion into the Romantic. There was no permanent conductor and the committee decided whom to invite as conductor for each concert. There were, and still are, a number of excellent orchestral conductors in the region, but this approach did not produce the consistency and growth that the members were looking for. However, after a particularly successful series of concerts in the year 2000, it was proposed that the orchestra should have a formal constitution and an established conductor. We were fortunate that Gareth John was available and willing to take on the task, and at the same time, Julian Marx became the leader.
These moves established a firmer basis for the ACO, produced stability, and allowed us to plan our concerts well ahead. It also encouraged a more adventurous approach to programming, so that the orchestra's repertoire can now claim to be fully symphonic, with recent programmes including major symphonies by Borodin and Dvorak, as well as the performance of concertos for piano, flute and violin, and operatic excerpts. The ACO has established a close relationship with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, who have provided us with a number of excellent soloists, and we hope to be able to continue to provide performance opportunities in Aberdeen for RCS students and postgraduates.
Currently, the ACO promotes an average of 3 concerts a year in the Aberdeen area. At least 5 rehearsals are required before each concert, as well as a considerable amount of preparatory work on musical scores. The programmes are selected by the orchestra management committee, working in conjunction with the conductor. The orchestra is currently able to support itself financially through a combination of ticket receipts and donations from several sponsors. Membership is by invitation of the committee and is entirely voluntary. Members of the orchestra also occasionally perform in ad-hoc groups to support charitable activities.
Jean Fletcher comes from a highly musical family; born in Yorkshire, she studied the violin with Eta Cohen and then at the RCM in London with Hugh Bean and Frederick Grinke. She led the Heller String Quartet in Bermuda. The Hellers were the first quartet to be invited by Sir Yehudi Menuhin to go to Bermuda to set up a string teaching programme and to be involved in the musical activities on the island. Jean later became Principal number 2 violin with the Ulster Orchestra before taking up a teaching position in her home town of Doncaster.
In 2006 Jean moved to Aberdeenshire in Scotland where she teaches in schools, is leader of the 2 nd violins with the Aberdeen Sinfonietta and leader of the Aberdeen Chamber Orchestra. Jean was invited to be Concert Master of the Menuhin Foundation String Orchestra, playing in the Bermuda Festival in February 2016. The Heller Ensemble has been reformed in Aberdeenshire with Ruth Kalitski, Sandra Thompson, Gareth John and Blair Cargill.
Gareth John was invited to become the first resident conductor of the Aberdeen Chamber Orchestra in 2000 after several guest appearances and as concerto soloist. He has conducted several youth orchestras (Glasgow University's Kelvin Ensemble, the North Wales Youth Orchestra, the National Youth String Orchestra of Scotland, the Training Schools of the National Children's Orchestra of Scotland and the Repertoire Course of the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland). He has conducted Aberdeen Sinfonietta and was Music Director of the Welsh opera company, OPRACymru and, for 12 years, Director of the Deveron Festival in Banff.
Gareth John received his first cello lessons from his father, Geraint, the cellist at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth and later with George Isaacs. He graduated with a Distinction in Performance at the Guildhall School of Music, London, studying with William Pleeth during which time he was awarded the Birdie Warshaw Prize and David Ffrançon Thomas Prize for Young Welsh Musicians. He now regularly appears as principal cellist with the leading North East Scotland orchestras as well as concerto soloist with the Aberdeen Sinfonietta and the Aberdeen Chamber Orchestra. As a chamber musician, he regularly performs in recital and has broadcast on BBC radio and S4C.


"I met Joanne and the people from ThinkInternational 6 years ago, when they went to Brazil to interview for job positions at the New York Stock Exchange.
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The talent that Joanne and Mike provide has always been exemplary. They continue to be the primary vendor of choice when I have an opening to fill. We have recruited overseas in Europe and Brazil with amazing success. In one weekend, we were able to interview, prioritize and select from over 100 people; many of whom I continue to work with and consider my close friends. In addition, Joanne and Mike are in constant communication with their staff and the client to insure the match continues to be beneficial for both the employer and the employee. Joanne possesses a sixth sense that enables her to identify talent and resolve issues long before they even have to be raised with the client.
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The sound of remote access: how audio can create a more complete remote experience
Author: Eden Jefford | 08 Oct 2019
Have you ever wondered how audio might add value to your remote access tools? You're already aware of the versatility a remote access software can bring to a range of different industries, and the sheer range of uses it encompasses.
When you add in an audio component, the possibilities are more wide-ranging than ever. From remotely editing audio and video files, to monitoring alarms from medical equipment, the applications are extensive.
Radio & broadcasting
Radio stations and broadcasters can face a range of operational challenges, particularly in rural areas. It may be that there is a lack of staffing, or that the station is in an area difficult to access because of adverse weather conditions. Remotely accessing the equipment required to keep a station on air is a huge piece of the challenge.
The ability to hear audio from the devices being accessed opens up a much broader range of possibilities. With remote audio, it is possible to ensure the correct audio files are being broadcast in real-time, that the sound quality is up to par, and that the broadcast remains up and running when needed. Not only that, but broadcasters can check that files queued are correct, without the need to download them locally in order to hear the audio.
Multimedia designers
Having remote access with audio enabled opens up the capability for people in creative industries to work from outside of the office. The high-tech software designers need is often expensive, their files are large, and the computers needed to handle them need to be powerful.
All this means that in order to work remotely you'd need all the features of your desktop anywhere you are. Many of these issues were solved with remote access, and with added audio features, it's just like being at your desk – every feature needed for editing a video or file, wherever you are. You can learn more about how multimedia designers can benefit from remote access here, where we interviewed our graphic designer.
Accessibility can often be overlooked, especially when you don't require it, but it's essential for millions of people around the world. Using remote access alone can assist people with disabilities to work remotely, access their computer from a tablet or phone when they are bed-bound, and numerous other functions that many of us take for granted.
Adding audio into the remote access mix opens up the possibility for screen reading software to be used on a remote computer. Previously this wouldn't be possible, as the sounds from the reader on a server computer would not be transmitted to the user's viewer. This functionality gives visually impaired users the ability to use remote access where they formerly could not.
In the medical field time is of the essence, and knowing when something is not right quickly can mean the difference between life and death. Many medical monitoring devices will sound an alarm when a patient is in distress, but if nobody can hear it, the patient won't receive the help they need. Being able to remotely access a monitoring device and hear the alarm even when out of earshot could save lives. An alarm tends to be more noticeable than a notification on a screen – you can look away from a screen easily, but sound tends to be unavoidable.
The applications for audio within remote access are many, and likely include many we don't know about, and possibly those we would never have thought of! If you use audio and remote access in a unique or specialized way, we'd love to hear your thoughts.
If you're yet to experience the immersive HD audio now available in VNC Connect, you can find out more here.
Written by Eden Jefford
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The National Herbarium of the Netherlands (Dutch: Nationaal Herbarium Nederland) is one of largest herbaria in the world with some 5.5 million specimens. It was established in  through a decentralized merger of the major university herbaria of Leiden (also known as the Rijksherbarium), Utrecht and Wageningen.  Each of the three had its own focus.

The National Herbarium currently consists of two branches:
Leiden University
Wageningen University and Research centre.
The Utrecht herbarium has been closed and in 2009 its stock was transferred to Leiden, where it is curated by the Naturalis Biodiversity Centre.
It is planned that Naturalis (the Netherlands' Natural History Museum and Centre for Biodiversity) will run the National Herbarium.

The NHN coordinates several flora projects. "Flora Malesiana" and "Flora of the Guianas" have their seat in Leiden, while the "Flore du Benin" and "Flore du Gabon" are coordinated from Wageningen.
Herbaria of several classic botanists are in the collections, e.g.
 David de Gorter

Access
The Herbarium is open to any visitor, professional or amateur, with a legitimate reason to consult the collections.
The specimen database is available through Brahms online: Specimen database.

Directors
When the National Herbarium was formed in 1999 Pieter Baas, former director of the  of Leiden University, became the director. He was succeeded in 2005 by .

See also
Blumea (journal)
Cornelis Gijsbert Gerrit Jan van Steenis
Hortus Botanicus Leiden

References

External links
 National Herbarium of the Netherlands

Netherlands
1999 establishments in the Netherlands
Scientific organisations based in the Netherlands
Organizations established in 1999

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Cactus Communications is a company dedicated to providing high-quality written English solutions to clients worldwide. They began operations in April 2002 with a team of five, providing editing services; and are now a team of 170+, and services span editing, transcription, education, and research.
Work environment is informal, transparent and yet professional and provides broad range of opportunities and fast career growth to talented and self-motivated individuals.
They were recently rated as one of the most 'Exciting Emerging Companies to work for' in the NASSCOM Exciting Emerging Companies (EEC) survey, which was conducted in September 2008.


I am a researcher at École Polytechnique in France (Chargée de Recherche CNRS at CMAP - UMR 7641). My research focuses on the design, analysis and application of new parallel solvers that are efficient but also robust in the sense that they can be applied to problems of interest in the engineering or applied sciences communities. Before that, I was a postdoc at CMM (Universidad de Chile) in Santiago and a PhD student at LJLL (Université PIerre et Marie Curie) in Paris.
2017-07-02 I attended the Preconditioning Conference in Vancouver as an invited speaker.
An Adaptive Multi Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient Algorithm and the presentation I gave of it.
2016-02-08 I organized a minisymposium together with Martin Gander at the DD24 conference in Svalbard, Norway. The topic was : Achieving Robustness with New Coarse Spaces and Enlarged Krylov Subspaces and we had 12 great talks !
2016-02-15 Together with C. Bovet, P. Gosselet and A. Parret-Fréaud, we have written an article about Adaptive Multipreconditioning for FETI: Adaptive multipreconditioned FETI: scalability results and robustness assessment..
2016-10-12 On October, 20th I will take part in a discussion about careers in mathematics at the event Mathématiques, Oxygène du numérique that will take place at the Paris VI campus (Jussieu).
2016-10-01 I started my new position as Chargée de Recherche CNRS (permanent research position) at the applied maths lab (CMAP) of Ecole Polytechnique.
2016-07-05 My articles on the adaptive multipreconditioned CG method have been accepted and will be published soon: An Adaptive Multipreconditioned Conjugate Gradient Algorithm in the SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing and Algebraic Adaptive Multipreconditioning applied to Restricted Additive Schwarz in the proceedings for the 23rd international conference on Domain Decomposition methods.
2016-06-15 I recently gave talks on adaptive multipreconditioning at SIAM PP and at MAFELAP .
2016-04-07 Journée Calcul Haute Performance et Décomposition de Domaines organized by the MCS team of LAGA and the Math-Stic pole of SPC at Paris 13.
2016-02-19 Can Adaptive Multi Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient apply to Restricted Additive Schwarz ? Yes, and it's algebraic : Algebraic Adaptive Multi Preconditioning applied to Restricted Additive Schwarz.
2015-10-20 My PhD was awarded a prize by AMIES (Agence pour les Mathématiques en Interaction avec l'Entreprise et la Société). Thank you!
2015-09-01 I started my new job at Polytechnique.
2015-08-12 The video of my plenary talk at the 23rd international conference on Domain Decomposition methods (Jeju Island, Korea) is on Youtube. My slides are available on the DD23 webpage.
2015-06-18 New paper submitted: An Adaptive Multi Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient Algorithm.
2015-04-15 My PhD was awarded a prize by the Computational Structural Mechanics Association. Thank you!


text:
Khekh Ram Vs. State of Himachal Pradesh[SC 2017]
CRIMINAL APPEAL-NDPS
Keywords: IDENTIFICATION OF ACCUSED- shoddy investigation
if two views are possible on the evidence adduced in the case, one pointing to the guilt of the accused and the other to his innocence, the view which is favourable to the accused should be adopted.
In terms of this judgment, suspicion, howsoever grave cannot take the place of proof and the prosecution case to succeed has to be in the category of "must be" and not "may be" a distance to be covered by way of clear, cogent and unimpeachable evidence to rule out any possibility of wrongful conviction of the accused and resultant miscarriage of justice.
ACT: Sections 20 and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985
BENCH : [N.V. RAMANA] [AMITAVA ROY]
HISTORY: High Court reversed the acquittal
[Criminal Appeal No.1110 of 2016]
AMITAVA ROY, J.
1. The instant appeal mounts a challenge to the judgment and orders dated 19.09.2016 and 22.09.2016 of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh at Shimla rendered in Criminal Appeal No. 218 of 2011 thereby reversing the verdict dated 29.12.2010 of acquittal of the appellant by the Trial Court from the charge under Sections 20 and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (for short, hereafter referred to as the "Act"). By the impugned decision, the appellant thus stand convicted under the above provisions of the Act and has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 20 years and to pay a fine of Rs. 2 lakhs, in default to suffer rigorous imprisonment for a period of one year.
2. We have heard Mr. Ajay Marwah, learned counsel for the appellant and Mr. Varinder Kumar Sharma, learned counsel for the respondent/State.
3. The skeletal facts portraying the prosecution case originate from the wee hours of 20.10.2009, precisely 4 a.m when the police patrol party led by Inspector/SHO Sanjeev Chauhan (PW-8), while located at a place known as Kelti Dhar noticed an Alto vehicle bearing registration No.HP-01K-0805 moving towards them from Shallang onward to Kullu. On seeing the patrol party, the driver of the vehicle stopped it, alighted therefrom and made good his escape in the adjacent apple orchard so much so that in spite of vigorous search operations by using the search lights, he could not be apprehended. As the place was secluded, the investigating officer, PW-8 directed HHC-Hira Singh, a member of the team to scout for independent witnesses to participate in the imminent search operations.
The said constable however returned after 15-20 minutes to disclose that neither any independent witness was available at that hour nor any passerby was noticeable. At this, the investigating officer associated HHC-Kashmi Ram and HHC-Hira Singh as witnesses and initiated a search of the vehicle in their presence. In course of the search, a black and red bag was found by the side of the seat of the driver and when opened the search party found black substance which prima facie by its smell appeared to be charas.
The search team also retrieved the registration certificate of the vehicle which was in the name of Ses Ram son of Shri Devi Singh as well as a bank passbook of Himachal Gramin Bank issued in the name of Khekh Ram son of Chuhru Ram, R/o village Gramang, PO – Shallang showing a deposit of Rs.1,79,029/- as on 03.10.2009. The contraband on being weighed was found to be of 14.750 kgs. The bag containing the contraband was put in a cloth parcel and sealed with seal of impression "T".
4. In the report under Section 173 Cr.P.C. the driver of the vehicle who fled was described to be stoutly built with height of 5'5″ and aged about 30-35 years and was referred 4 to as Khekh Ram. After the completion of seizure, ruqqa was sent to the police station through HHC-Hira Singh for the registration thereof. In course of the investigation on 20.10.2009, the owner of the vehicle Ses Ram was summoned who disclosed that he had sold the vehicle to one Govind Singh on 03.08.2009. Govind Singh was intercepted on 20.10.2009 who in turn disclosed that on 19.10.2009 the vehicle was taken by Khekh Ram for some personal work.
Subsequent thereto, the appellant, Khekh Ram was arrested on 21.10.2009 while he was driving another vehicle. Govind Singh was later on arrested on 06.03.2010 and on completion of the investigation following the receipt of the report of the chemical analysis, proceedings under Sections 20 and 29 of the Act was instituted against the appellant and Govind Singh. The accused persons having denied the charge, they were put to trial.
5. The prosecution examined in all eight witnesses including the investigating officer. In course of their statements recorded under Section 313 Cr.P.C., the appellant and the co-accused stood by the denial of the 5 charge and alleged false implication. No defence evidence was however adduced.
6. The Trial Court on an analysis of the evidence on record acquitted both the accused persons. On appeal being filed by the State, as stated hereinabove, the High Court reversed the acquittal qua the appellant only while maintaining the exoneration of the co-accused Govind Singh.
7. The impugned judgment being one of reversal altering the order of acquittal into conviction on the basis of common set of evidence, expedient it would be to briefly note the findings of the two forums before adverting to the rival assertions made in this appeal. Noticeably, in essence, whereas it was canvassed on behalf of the prosecution that the materials on record amply establish the charge against the accused persons, it was urged on behalf of the defence that there was no evidence worth the name either to identify the appellant Khekh Ram to be the driver of the offending vehicle who fled on seeing the police patrol party or that either or both the accused persons were in conscious possession of the contraband claim to be seized therefrom.
8. The Trial Court in assessing the evidence adduced by the prosecution was cognizant of the legal proposition that graver the offence and severer the punishment, greater ought to be the care taken to ensure that all statutory safeguards have been scrupulously adhered to and that a heightened scrutiny of such compliance thereof is warranted. On the aspect of identification, it dealt in particular with the testimony of HHC-Hira Singh, PW-1 who though in his examination-in-chief stated that he could recognize the person fleeing from the vehicle, in the search light as Khekh Ram, he admitted in his cross-examination that prior to the incident, the appellant was not personally known to him and that he had seen him on that occasion from a distance of 40 to 50 yards.
It also recorded that the investigating officer, PW-8 had not stated in his deposition that the absconding person was Khekh Ram and that he had been identified to be so by PW-1, HHC-Hira Singh and another member of the raiding party, namely, HHC-Kashmi Ram. The investigating officer deposed that the co-accused Govind Singh had disclosed on interrogation, that Khekh Ram had taken his vehicle for bringing his wife from Anni. The admission of the investigating officer, PW-8 that he did not record in the ruqqa the fact that the driver of the vehicle carrying the contraband was facing him and that he accordingly could recognize him was noted. The Trial Court thus discarded the evidence of these two witnesses to connect the appellant with the offence.
It was also mentioned by the Trial Court that if the seizure memo, Ext.PW1/A in fact had been prepared by the investigating officer at the spot, the same ought to have contained the above facts bearing on the identification of the appellant and that absence thereof and the omission to refer the name of the appellant in the ruqqa Ext.PW8/A and the special report Ext.PW3/A did bely as well the claim of his identification by the police party. It was of the view that as evident from the ruqqa Ext.PW8/A, the name of the appellant got mentioned therein on the basis of his passbook recovered from the vehicle. In the face of these anomalies, the Trial Court also concluded that the recovery memo Ext.PW1/A had not been prepared at the spot as claimed by the investigating officer.
It also observed in this regard that in the special report Ext.PW3/A, the facts mentioned in the recovery memo Ext.PW1/A were not referred to and held that either the identification of the appellant was not available to the investigating agency or was subsequently introduced by the investigating officer in order to connect him with the commission of the offence. The Trial Court recorded as well that no test identification parade had been conducted qua the appellant and also marked the absence of any claim by PW-1, HHC-Hira Singh that on the arrest of the appellant on 21.10.2009, he had identified him as the person who had fled from the spot.
It discarded as well the NCB Form, Ext.PW4/E (in which the name of the appellant was mentioned), on the ground that as this document was supposed to be prepared prior in point of time to ruqqa, it was inexplicable as to why then the name of the appellant was not mentioned in the ruqqa which was sent to the police for registration of the case. According to the Trial Court, there was also no endorsement with regard to registration of the FIR on the ruqqa Ext.PW8/A. The Trial Court viewed with disapproval as well, the photographs Ex. PW-8/B-1 to Ex. PW-8/B-8 claimed to have been taken by the investigating officer with his digital camera, of the car and 9 the seized article, as some of those did not bear any date and the rest were of 05.01.2008 at 7.06 a.m., different from the date of seizure of the contraband i.e. 20.10.2009. In the estimate of the Trial Court, these photographs thus could not be related to the seizure claimed.
Vis-à-vis the co-accused Govind Singh, the Trial Court noticed that there was no incriminating material to prove his involvement in the commission of the offence. Consequently, it acquitted the appellant and the co-accused of the charge. 9. The High Court however on a reappraisal of the evidence on record laid emphasis on the testimony of PW-1, HHC-Hira Singh in the matter of identification of the appellant as the person who fled from the scene on seeing the patrol party. Decisive weight was also extended to the recovery of the passbook of the appellant from the chamber of the dashboard of the vehicle.
It recorded that the name of the appellant was mentioned both in the ruqqa Ex. PW-8/A and the NCB form which according to it had been missed by the Trial Court. The High Court noted that the appellant had failed to offer any explanation about the presence of his passbook in the offending vehicle and by observing that 10 there was no reason for the prosecution to falsely implicate him, returned a finding that the charge against him had been proved beyond all reasonable doubt. It however reiterated that the prosecution had failed to prove the case against the co-accused Govind Singh and affirmed his acquittal. The appeal of the State was partly allowed and the appellant was convicted under Section 20 of the Act and was sentenced as mentioned hereinabove.
10. Before we move on to the analysis of the facts and the evidence on records apt it would be to deal with the rival contentions.
11. Mr. Ajay Marwah, learned counsel for the appellant has insistently argued that the prosecution having utterly failed to establish the identity of the appellant with the driver of the vehicle from which the contraband had been allegedly seized, the view taken by the Trial Court on the basis of the evidence both oral and documentary being flawless and reasonable, the High Court had erred in law and on facts in reversing the same on grounds patently untenable.
According to the learned counsel, as neither the evidence of 11 PW-1 and/or PW-8 nor any of the contemporaneous documents claimed to have been prepared in connection with the search and seizure does establish in any manner the complicity of the appellant in the offence, the conviction as recorded by the High Court if allowed to stand would be a travesty of justice. Mr. Marwah urged that in absence of any clinching evidence with regard to the identification of the appellant as the driver of the vehicle who had fled on seeing the patrol party, the recovery of his passbook from the car per se cannot prove beyond reasonable doubt his culpability.
The learned counsel maintained that an overall consideration of the oral and documentary evidence adduced by the prosecution would unerringly indicate that the documents with regard to search and seizure had not been prepared at the spot but subsequently, to falsely foist the prosecution on the appellant only on the basis of his passbook and no other evidence whatsoever. Mr. Marwah argued that the photographs relied upon by the prosecution as contemporaneous documents in support of the search and seizure also bely the prosecution case as none of those, though clicked with a digital camera, depict the date thereof i.e. 20.10.2009 and therefore cannot by any stretch of imagination be related thereto.
The learned counsel argued that as conscious possession of the contraband is an indispensable prerequisite for conviction of the appellant on the charge framed against him, absence of his identification is destructive of the substratum of the prosecution case. According to him, as the view taken by the Trial Court is not only formidably plausible but also irrefutably reasonable, the High Court had grossly erred in reversing the same by merely substituting its view, unsupported by the material available. In buttressal of his pleas, the learned counsel has placed reliance on the decisions of this Court in Prem Singh vs. State of Haryana1, Krishan Chand vs. State of H.P.2 and Mahinder Singh vs. State of Himachal Pradesh .
12. Per contra, it has been assiduously argued on behalf of the respondent/State that the identification of the appellant as the driver of the vehicle carrying the contraband having been established beyond doubt and the search and seizure of the commodity having been undertaken strictly in 1 (2013) 14 SCC 88 2 2017(6) SCALE 468 3 Criminal Appeal No.1286 of 2017 decided on 31.7.2017. 13 accordance with the prescriptions of law, his conviction is unassailable and ought to be affirmed. According to the learned counsel, the inferences drawn by the Trial Court are not borne out by the materials on record and therefore have been rightly repudiated in the impugned judgment and order.
13. It would next be expedient to briefly deal with the authorities cited at the Bar to recapitulate the judicial enunciation of the scope of an Appellate Court to reverse an order of acquittal in a criminal trial. In Prem Singh1, the challenge was to the judgment of reversal of the jurisdictional High Court whereby the appellant was convicted along with the co-accused Vishwa Bandhu under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code (for short hereafter referred to as the "IPC") and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life. The appellant and the aforenamed co-accused had been acquitted by the Trial Court. All the seven accused persons were acquitted of the charge of murder of Siri Krishan who as per the prosecution case was on 26.11.1993 at about 6.30/6.45 a.m. gunned down by some persons while he was on his morning walk.
14 The incident was reported to the brother of the deceased PW-16, Sohan Lal by one Vijay Kumar, a neighbour. On receipt of the information, PW-16 along with his nephew Navneet Kumar and Vijay Kumar went to the spot and found the deceased lying in a pool of blood. He was removed in injured condition to the Government Hospital where he was declared to have been brought dead. The FIR was registered and on the completion of the investigation, charge-sheet was laid against the appellant and others under Sections 120-B, 148, 302 read with Section 149 IPC and Section 25 of the Arms Act, 1959. The investigation amongst others led to the recovery of firearms on the disclosure of the appellant and co-accused Ballu. Further, several empty cartridges and lead bullets were also recovered from the place of occurrence.
In the postmortem, three bullets were extricated from the dead body. The investigating agency forwarded the firearms recovered along with the bullets retrieved from the dead body for forensic examination. Charge was framed against the accused persons on the provisions of law under which charge-sheet had been submitted. At the end of the trial however, all the 15 accused persons were acquitted. In the appeal by the State, the High Court, as noted hereinabove, reversed the acquittal qua the appellant and the co-accused Vishwa Bandhu. This Court while reflecting on the scope of the power of the High Court under Section 378 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (for short hereafter referred to as the "Code") in dealing with an order of acquittal referred amongst others to an extract from its earlier verdict in Murugesan and others vs. State4. The legal proposition as enunciated in paragraph 21 of the said ruling, as quoted hereunder, was noted:
"21. A concise statement of the law on the issue that had emerged after over half a century of evolution since Sheo Swarup is to be found in para 42 of the Report in Chandrappa v. State of Karnataka. The same may, therefore, be usefully noticed below: (SCC p.432) "42. From the above decisions, in our considered view, the following general principles regarding powers of the appellate court while dealing with an appeal against an order of acquittal emerge:
(1) An appellate court has full power to review, re-appreciate and reconsider the evidence upon which the order of acquittal is founded.
(2) The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 puts no limitation, restriction or condition on exercise of such power and an appellate court on the evidence before it may reach its own conclusion, both on questions of fact and of law.
(3) Various expressions, such as, 'substantial and compelling reasons', 'good and sufficient grounds', 'very strong circumstances', 'distorted conclusions', 'glaring mistakes', etc. are not intended to curtail extensive powers of an appellate court in an appeal against acquittal. Such phraseologies are more in the nature of 'flourishes of language' to emphasise the reluctance of an appellate court to interfere with acquittal than to curtail the power of the court to review the evidence and to come to its own conclusion.
(4) An appellate court, however, must bear in mind that in case of acquittal, there is double presumption in favour of the accused. Firstly, the presumption of innocence is available to him under the fundamental principle of criminal jurisprudence that every person shall be presumed to be innocent unless he is proved guilty by a competent court of law. Secondly, the accused having secured his acquittal, the presumption of his innocence is further reinforced, reaffirmed and strengthened by the trial court.
(5) If two reasonable conclusions are possible on the basis of the evidence on record, the appellate court should not disturb the finding of acquittal recorded by the trial court."
In the above jurisprudential backdrop, this Court next analyzed the evidence adduced by the prosecution and the scrutiny thereof by the Trial Court in recording acquittal of the appellant and the co-accused. The fatal anomalies and deficiencies in the prosecution case, as noticed, by the Trial Court were enumerated thus:
(a) Vijay Kumar who had reported about the incident to PW-16, Sohan Lal had not been examined by the prosecution, though it was its case that Vijay Kumar had witnessed the occurrence.
(b) Though the prosecution tried to justify the non-examination of Vijay Kumar by contending that it was his daughter who had witnessed the occurrence, even she was not adduced as a witness.
(c) The testimony of PW-11, Sohan Lal and PW-12, Bharat Lal were not worthy of any credence as they conceded that they had not received any summons to appear as witness 18 and in fact had appeared at the request of the son of the deceased.
(d) PW-11, Sohan Lal was an employee of the brother of PW-13, Smt. Pushpa Devi, who was the wife of the deceased.
(e) Though PW-11 and PW-12 claimed that they knew the deceased from before and that the house of the deceased was very near to the place of occurrence, they did neither visit the house of the deceased nor inform the family members of the deceased nor did they report the incident to the police.
(f)They instead roamed about aimlessly in the streets of Karnal until they came to the place of occurrence when their statements were recorded by the police.
(g) The recovery of weapons at the instance of the appellant and the co-accused Ballu was highly doubtful.
(h) As per the report of the Forensic Science Laboratory, Madhuban, no nexus could be established between the bullets recovered from the dead body and the firearms allegedly recovered.
(i)PW-11 and PW-12 had identified the accused including the appellant for the first time in Court.
(j)The evidence of PW-11 and PW-12 was full of significant discrepancies with regard to the identity of the accused and the roles attributed to them in the perpetration of the crime. In the above overwhelming factual premise, this Court concluded that the finding of innocence recorded by Trial Court was a reasonably possible view taken on the basis of the evidence and materials on record and thus the High Court ought not to have disturbed the same even if, on a re-appreciation of the evidence it was inclined to take a different view. This Court reiterated the oft quoted fundamental proposition that so long the view taken by the Trial Court in awarding acquittal on a criminal charge was a possible one, the exercise of the appellate power of the High Court under Section 378 of the Code would remain circumscribed by the well-settled parameters noticed hereinabove. The conviction of the appellant was set aside in the attendant facts and circumstances and his acquittal was restored.
14. This Court in Krishan Chand2, was seized with the impugnment of the judgment of the territorial High Court convicting the appellant under Section 30 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, Act, 1985 (for short hereafter referred to as the "NDPS Act") and sentencing him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of 20 years and to pay fine of Rs. 2,00,000/- with default stipulation, by reversing the acquittal recorded by the Trial Court. The prosecution case, as noted in brief was that on 27.11.2010 at about 5 a.m. while the patrol party including the complainant-SHO Gurbachan Singh, PW-6 was on duty at the Patarna Bridge, a person was seen coming with a rucksack on his back.
On seeing the police party, he tried to flee but was apprehended and he disclosed his name to be Krishan Chand. His bag was searched which revealed some black substance which appeared to be charas. The contraband on being weighed was found to be of 7 kgs. It was seized and sealed. The appellant was arrested. Ruqqa 21 was prepared and was sent to the police station and after obtaining the report from the Forensic Science Laboratory, the appellant was sent up for trial. Prosecution examined six witnesses. In course of his statement under Section 313 Cr.P.C. the appellant denied recovery of charas from him.
He further claimed to be innocent and alleged that he had been falsely implicated. He also examined two witnesses Narain Singh and Govind Singh in defence. The Trial Court acquitted the appellant holding that the prosecution had failed to prove the charge beyond reasonable doubt. In the appeal, filed by the State, the High Court convicted and sentenced the appellant as above. The principal plea of the appellant before this Court was that the High Court had failed to appreciate that in absence of any independent witness, the evidence of the police witnesses ought to have been scrutinized with greater care and as the police witnesses had contradicted themselves about the authorship of the seizure memo, the arrest memo, consent memo and the NCB, no interference with the acquittal ought to have been made.
The evidence of 22 PW-4 and PW-6 was referred to for reinforcing the above assertion. This Court noted that the Trial Court in acquitting the appellant had laid emphasis on two aspects, namely, no independent witness was examined and fatal contradictions in the testimonies of PW-4 and PW-6. This Court, analyzing the testimony of PW-4, Umesh Kumar recorded that this witness had stated that as the place of the occurrence was isolated having no habitation nearby, he was associated in the investigation by PW-6, Gurbachan (complainant) whereafter the person as well as the bag of the appellant was searched after making him aware of his right to have the said exercise undertaken before a Magistrate or a Gazetted Officer.
This witness affirmed that on searching the bag of the appellant, charas weighing 7 kg. was detected which was seized, parceled and sealed whereafter NCB form was filled up, sample seal was taken in a separate piece of cloth and the seized contraband was taken in possession and the related memo was signed by him as well as Head Constable, Tain Singh. This witness disclosed further that the party was at the spot for about 1 23 hour 40 minutes and it was dark at the relevant point of time. Further they did neither have any search light nor the lights of the vehicle had been switched on. He expressed ignorance as to in whose handwriting the consent memo was written.
He however stated that the search memo, seizure memo, arrest memo, sample seal and the NCB Form were all in the hand of SHO, Gurbachan Singh. He also stated that he was not aware as to who scribed the personal search memo of the accused. While appraising the testimony of PW-6 this Court noticed in particular that this witness did not remember the duration of the stay of the police party at the spot before the accused was apprehended. This witness however was clear in deposing that it was not night time and that the accused could be seen from a distance of 10 meters. He contradicted PW-4 by stating that the consent memo, memo of search, seizure memo, noting on the sample seal, memo of personal search was not in his hands but was got written by him from one of the members of the police party under his dictation.
This Court noticed the contradiction on the above aspects in the evidence of PW-4 and PW-6 and observed that those could not be glossed over as minor, more particularly in the background of the allegation of false implication made by the accused/appellant. It held the view, that from the evidence it appeared that the place where the accused/appellant had been apprehended was not an isolated one as one house of Govind Singh, DW-2 was located nearby. This Court thus rejected the version of the prosecution that independent witnesses could not be associated as the place was desolate.
In all, in view of the above inconsistencies and the deficiencies in prosecution evidence, this Court held that the possession of the contraband by the accused/appellant and seizure thereof from him was doubtful. It noted as well that though there was a reference of recovery of knife at the time of opening of the bag allegedly carried by the accused/appellant, it did not find place in the seizure memo which further created doubt in the prosecution case. The conviction was set aside holding that the High Court had failed to take note of the contradictions in the evidence in the proper perspective and had failed thereby to appreciate that harsher is the punishment, the stricter ought to be the proof of the charge.
15. The elaboration of the facts in the decisions cited at the Bar has been to underline the factual setting in which reversal of the orders of acquittal had been interfered with by this Court. Though it is no longer res integra that an order of acquittal, if appealed against, ought not to be lightly interfered with, it is trite as well that the Appellate Court is fully empowered to review, re-appreciate and reconsider the evidence on record and to reach its own conclusions both on questions of fact and on law. As a corollary, the Appellate Court would be within its jurisdiction and authority to dislodge an acquittal on sound, cogent and persuasive reasons based on the recorded facts and the law applicable.
If only when the view taken by the Trial Court in ordering acquittal is an equally plausible and reasonable one that the Appellate Court would not readily substitute the same by another view available to it, on its independent appraisal of the materials on record. This legally acknowledged restraint on the power of the Appellate Court would get attracted only if the two views are equally plausible and reasonable and not otherwise. If the view taken by the Trial Court is a possible but not a reasonable one when tested on the evidence on record and the legal principles applied, unquestionably it can and ought to be displaced by a plausible and reasonable view by the Appellate Court in furtherance of the ultimate cause of justice. Though no innocent ought to be punished, it is equally imperative that a guilty ought not to be let of casually lest justice is a casualty.
16. Having regard to the two irreconcilable views adopted by the Courts below, it is felt expedient to revisit the essential aspects of the evidence bearing in particular on the identification of the appellant as the possessor and carrier of the contraband. The FIR registered on 20.10.2009 discloses PW-8, Inspector Sanjeev Chauhan to be the complainant/informant. It sets out that on 20.10.2009 at about 4 a.m. the vehicle HP-01K-0805 which was coming from Shallang was signalled to stop by the patrol party, whereupon the driver thereof stopped the car, alighted therefrom and disappeared in the adjoining apple orchard and could not be apprehended in spite of being chased with search lights.
The FIR discloses that in spite of an endeavour made no independent witness could be secured and that on the search of the vehicle a bag of red and black colour was recovered containing 14 kg. 750 grams of charas which was seized and sealed in presence of the members of the patrol team, namely, HHC-Kashmi Ram and HHC-Hira Singh (PW-1). That in course of the search a registration certificate in the name of Ses Ram s/o Devi Ram and a passbook of Himachal Gramin Bank, Kullu in the name of the appellant was recovered was stated as well. It was mentioned that the driver of the vehicle, who had run away after stopping the same, was well built with a height of 5'5″ and aged about 30-35 years and the person was named as Khekh Ram.
17. PW-1, HHC-Hira Singh, who was a member of the patrol as well as search team substantially reiterated the facts leading to the spotting of the vehicle, the escape of the driver, recovery of the contraband and the seizure thereof. Qua the aspect of identification, this witness stated that at the time of his fleeing from the spot, he could recognize him in the search light as Khekh Ram and also located him in the Court. In cross-examination however this witness stated 28 that when the search light was focused on the person, the police party noticed the back portion of his and he claimed further to have seen his side face from a distance of 40 to 50 yards. He admitted as well that Khekh Ram was not personally known to him before the incident. This witness testified that photographs of the bag lying on the seat of the vehicle were taken at the spot. He denied the suggestion that Khekh Ram was lifted from his house in the night of 20.10.2009 merely on the basis of suspicion and that he was falsely implicated in the case.
18. PW-2, Ses Ram deposed that he was the owner of the Alto car and had on 13.08.2009 sold the same to Govind Singh. He clarified that though the sale transaction had occurred, as the vehicle had been privately financed and the loan was not repaid, the same could not be transferred in the name of Govind Singh. This witness in his cross-examination stated that after the purchase of the vehicle by Govind Singh, he had employed a Nepali, as a driver thereof.
19. PW-8, Inspector Sanjeev Chauhan, the Investigating Officer, on oath reiterated his version in the FIR and stated in particular that after packing the bag containing the contraband with a cloth, he sealed the same with nine seals of "T" and thereafter filled the NCB forms, amongst others Ext.PW4/E. He drew up also the seizure memo of the car, the keys, the registration certificate, the passbook and the charas vide Ext.PW1/A. He stated to have prepared the ruqqa Ext.PW8/A and handed over the same to HHC-Hira Singh, PW-1 to take it to the police station, Kullu for registration of the FIR. He claimed that photographs were also taken by him of the seized commodity in the form of Ext.PW8/B-1 to Ext.PW8/B-10 with his digital camera. He stated to have completed the proceedings at the spot with the help of search lights and the headlights of the vehicles whereafter he directed ASI Ratan Lal to locate Ses Ram and to arrest Khekh Ram.
He deposed to have summoned Ses Ram and Govind Singh to the police station and after the disclosures made by them about the sale of the vehicle and the temporary entrustment by Govind Singh of the vehicle to Khekh Ram, he arrested the appellant on 21.10.2009 at 4 30 p.m. He stated that after the arrest of the appellant, he prepared a special report, Ext.PW-3/A. In his examination-in-chief though this witness had reiterated his narration in the FIR that the driver of the Alto car on being stopped, jumped therefrom and fled, he did not claim to have identified him to be the appellant.
In his cross-examination he however testified that when he came down from the vehicle, the driver of the Alto vehicle was facing him and he could thus recognize him. He denied the suggestion that he had not mentioned in the ruqqa that he could see the face of Khekh Ram. As the identification of the appellant is of determinative significance, the instant scrutiny of the evidence has been, for obvious reasons, confined chiefly to this aspect.
20. Section 20 of the Act under which the appellant had been charged prescribes for punishment for contravention in relation to cannabis plant and cannabis. Section 29 of the Act ordains the punishment for abetment of and criminal conspiracy for commission of an offence punishable under Chapter IV. The gravamen of the charge against the appellant is possession and transportation of charas as punishable under the above provisions. It cannot be gainsaid thus, that the appellant to be guilty of the offence with which he had been charged, he must be proved to be in conscious possession of the contraband seized. This assumes great significance as admittedly the procedure of search of the Alto vehicle which allegedly he had been driving and the seizure of charas, the registration certificate of the vehicle and the passbook in the name of the appellant in particular had been in his absence as well as without the participation of any independent witness.
The identification of the appellant to be the driver who had absconded on seeing the patrol party therefore is the sine qua non for the proof of the charge leveled against him. The materials on record propel three pieces of evidence in this regard, firstly the testimony of PW-1 and PW-8, secondly the evidence of Govind Singh according to whom the vehicle had been taken by the appellant for bringing his wife from Anni and most importantly the recovery of the bank passbook in his name from the vehicle. To recall, though PW-1 claimed to have identified the absconding driver of the vehicle to be the appellant Khekh Ram in the search light, in 32 cross-examination he stated to have seen along with the other members of the patrol party, his back portion. He endeavoured to improve his observation, by mentioning that he had seen also his side face from a distance of 40 to 50 yards, but admitted that Khekh Ram was not personally known to him before that incident.
21. PW-8 though was silent with regard to the identification of the fleeing driver, in cross-examination he mentioned that at the point of time when the two vehicles were face to face, the driver of the Alto car was facing towards the police vehicle and he could recognize him. This witness however did not claim to have identified the driver to be the appellant, Khekh Ram at that point of time. The testimony of PW-1 and PW-8 taken together by itself is not adequately persuasive to unimpeachably establish the identity of the driver of the Alto vehicle to be Khekh Ram, the appellant. In absence of any test identification parade, implication of the appellant on the basis, this piece of evidence, where the appellant Khekh Ram was not known to either of these two witnesses or had been seen by them before would be clearly hazardous.
Whereas the disclosure made by the co-accused Govind Singh that he had lent the vehicle to the appellant to carry his wife on 19.10.2009 would not ipso facto be a conclusive proof of his identity as the driver of the vehicle at the time of its interception by the police party, the recovery of his passbook therefrom, albeit a factor weighing against him, cannot as well clinch by itself the issue of his identification in favour of the prosecution.
With the evidence forthcoming that the registered owner of the vehicle was Ses Ram (PW-2) who deposed to have sold it to Govind Singh but the registration thereof had not been transferred and further that the vehicle had been temporarily lent to the appellant for his personal work, does not irrefutably rule out the possibility of use thereof by anyone of them at the relevant time. In the overall state of evidence with regard to identification, in our comprehension, the view taken by the Trial Court is overwhelmingly reasonable. To the contrary, the conclusion of the High Court on this issue seems to be dominantly guided by the recovery of the bank passbook in the name of the appellant from the vehicle and the reference of his name in the ruqqa Ext.PW8/A and the NCB form. The failure of the appellant to explain the presence of his bank passbook in the car also weighed considerably with the High Court against him.
22. The photographs, claimed by the prosecution to have been taken by the Investigating Officer, PW-8 with his digital camera to correlate the seized article with the one captured therein, to state the least, wholly lack in credence and persuasion. Not only, as expected, the photographs with the kind of camera used, do not record the date of the procedure i.e. 20.10.2009, some of those do not bear any date whereas the rest are dated 05.01.2008, 7.06 a.m. The prosecution has failed to offer any explanation whatsoever for this anomaly. It is thus more than apparent that the appellant has been implicated in the offence wholly due to the recovery of his bank passbook from the vehicle for which as a consequence his name was recorded in all the documents prepared in connection with the exercise undertaken.
In absence of any other cogent, coherent and clinching evidence of his identification as the driver of the Alto car carrying the contraband, this document to reiterate, cannot be acted in isolation to base his conviction. Having regard to the materials on record, it is clear that his arrest in connection with this case was due to the recovery of his bank passbook from the car and not on the basis of his spot identification. The prosecution, in our view, has failed to adduce conclusive and consistent evidence to bring home the charge against the appellant.
23. It is a common place proposition that in a criminal trial suspicion however grave cannot take the place of proof and the prosecution to succeed has to prove its case and establish the charge by adducing convincing evidence to ward off any reasonable doubt about the complicity of the accused. For this, the prosecution case has to be in the category of "must be true" and not "may be true". This Court while dwelling on this postulation, in Rajiv Singh vs. State of Bihar and another [5 (2015) 16 SCC 369 36] dilated thereon as hereunder:
"66. It is well entrenched principle of criminal jurisprudence that a charge can be said to be proved only when there is certain and explicit evidence to warrant legal conviction and that no person can be held guilty on pure moral conviction. Howsoever grave the alleged offence may be, otherwise stirring the conscience of any court, suspicion alone cannot take the place of legal proof. The well established cannon of criminal justice is "fouler the crime higher the proof". In unmistakable terms, it is the mandate of law that the prosecution in order to succeed in a criminal trial, has to prove the charge(s) beyond all reasonable doubt.
67. The above enunciations resonated umpteen times to be reiterated in Raj Kumar Singh v. State of Rajasthan as succinctly summarized in paragraph 21 as hereunder:
21. Suspicion, however grave it may be, cannot take the place of proof, and there is a large difference between something that "may be" proved and "will be proved". In a criminal trial, suspicion no matter how strong, cannot and must not be permitted to take place of proof. This is for the reason that the mental distance between "may be" and "must be" is quite large and divides vague conjectures from sure conclusions. In a criminal case, the court has a duty to ensure that mere conjectures or suspicion do not take the place of legal proof.
The large distance between "may be" true and "must be" true, must be covered by way of clear, cogent and unimpeachable evidence produced by the prosecution, before an accused is condemned as a convict, and the basic and golden rule must be applied. In such cases, while keeping in mind the distance between "may be" true and "must be" true, the court must maintain the vital distance between conjectures and sure conclusions to be arrived at, on the touchstone of dispassionate judicial scrutiny based upon a complete and comprehensive appreciation of all features of the case, as well as the quality and credibility of the evidence brought on record. The court must ensure that miscarriage of justice is avoided and if the facts and circumstances of a case so demand, then the benefit of doubt must be given to the accused, keeping in mind that a reasonable doubt is not an imaginary, trivial or a merely probable doubt, but a fair doubt that is based upon reason and common sense.
[Emphasis laid by the Court]
68. In supplementation, it was held in affirmation of the view taken in Kali Ram v. State of H.P. that if two views are possible on the evidence adduced in the case, one pointing to the guilt of the accused and the other to his innocence, the view which is favourable to the accused should be adopted.
69. In terms of this judgment, suspicion, howsoever grave cannot take the place of proof and the prosecution case to succeed has to be in the category of "must be" and not "may be" a distance to be covered by way of clear, cogent and unimpeachable evidence to rule out any possibility of wrongful conviction of the accused and resultant miscarriage of justice. For this, the Court has to essentially undertake an exhaustive and analytical appraisal of the evidence on record and register findings as warranted by the same. The above proposition is so well-established that it does not call for multiple citations to further consolidate the same."
24. In our estimate, having regard to the quality of evidence on record as a whole and in particular on the aspect of identification, the view taken by the Trial Court being convincingly reasonable is acceptable in comparison to one adopted by the High Court.
25. The High Court in the attendant facts and circumstances, in our determination, erred in upturning the findings recorded by the Trial Court. The impugned judgment and order is thus set aside and the acquittal of the appellant is restored. This Court shares the concern expressed by the Trial Court on the shoddy investigation conducted in the case, having regard in particular to the seriousness of the offence involved and reiterate the direction issued by it to the Superintendent of Police, Kullu to enquire into the matter to ascertain the reason for the omission/lapses in the investigation, identify the person(s) responsible therefor and the action taken in connection therewith so as to ensure against repetition of such shortcomings in future.
The Superintendent of Police, Kullu would complete the inquiry and submit a report to this Court within a period of three months herefrom. The appeal is allowed. The appellant be released from custody if not required in connection with any other case.
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