Penal Code, 1860 – s.302 – Murder – Abusive quarrel between the appellant and the victim – Appellant attacked the victim with a butcher knife and victim succumbed to injuries – Relying on the evidence of the prosecution witnesses, the courts below convicted the appellant u/s.302 and sentenced him to life imprisonment – Correctness:
Held: Evidence of the informant-PW-1 contradictory with that of PW-6 – Perusal of the testimony of PW-1 when compared with the testimony of PW-6, clearly casts a doubt on the truthfulness of this witness – Absence of bloodstains on his clothes the witnesses who carried the deceased to the hospital as also witnesses did not inform either the Police Station or the police constable who was standing at a distance of about 50 steps from the place of incident – PW-1 is the brother of deceased and as such an interested witness – Testimony of PW-1 does not inspire confidence – Conduct of PW-2 make his evidence unnatural – Adverse inference can be drawn on the statement of PW-3 – Furthermore, PW-4 was only deposing on the basis of hearsay, and other witnesses declared hostile – Thus, serious doubt on the veracity of the prosecution witnesses – Also, evidence on record that the deceased was history-sheeter and was facing many criminal cases including a case for attempt to murder, and evidence of prosecution witnesses that there was previous enmity between the deceased and the appellant – Enmity is a double-edged weapon – On one hand, it provides motive, on the other hand it also does not rule out the possibility of false implication – From the nature of the evidence placed on record, the possibility of the appellant being falsely implicated on account of previous enmity cannot be ruled out – Appellant entitled to benefit of doubt – Order passed by the courts below quashed and set aside. [Paras 13-23]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Nidhi Jain. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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