Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 — Whether High Court correctly appreciated the facts and upheld the conviction of the accused — Correctness:
Held: While convicting, the Trial Court mainly relied upon the evidence given by parents of the deceased and the dying declaration, which was recorded by the Judicial Magistrate — Dying declaration is an important piece of evidence and a conviction can be made by relying solely on a dying declaration alone as it holds immense importance in criminal law – However, such reliance should be placed after ascertaining the quality of the dying declaration and considering the entire facts of a given case — The deceased had given two statements which are totally different from her subsequent statement made before the Judicial Magistrate, which casts serious doubts on the veracity of the deceased’s subsequent statement, where the deceased had blamed the accused for the incident — No other evidence corroborates the deceased’s statement that the appellant had poured kerosene on her and then set her on fire — The doctor, who had examined the deceased immediately after the incident, denied the presence of the smell of kerosene in the body of the deceased when she was brought to the hospital — Reliance of prosecution on Observation Mahazar is not correct, which is itself doubtful as the seizure witness to the said Mahazar has turned hostile and there had been an inordinate delay in sending the Mahazar to Court — Where the deceased has been changing her stance and has completely turned around her statements, such a dying declaration cannot become the sole basis for the conviction in the absence of any other corroborative evidence — Total reliance on subsequent dying declaration would be misplaced – Thus, the accused deserves to be given the benefit of doubt, therefore acquitted. [Paras 11-17]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Gaurav Upadhyay, Hony. Associate Editor (Verified by: Kanu Agrawal, Adv.). Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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