Witness – Eyewitness – Failure of the eyewitnesses to identify the accused in the court – Effect on the prosecution case – Prosecution case that accused persons with a common object, armed with deadly weapons, murdered two persons and attempted to kill others, who are now the injured witnesses – Trial Court convicted the accused persons for the offences punishable u/ss.147, 148, 307, rw s.149 and s.302 rw s.149 and sentenced accordingly – High Court upheld the judgment of trial court – Correctness:
Held: In cases where eyewitness knew the accused before the incident, they must identify the accused sitting in the dock as the same accused whom they had seen committing the crime – In cases where eyewitness did not know the accused before the incident, it is necessary to hold a Test Identification Parade – If it is not held and if the evidence of eyewitness is recorded after a few years, the identification of such an accused by the eyewitness in the Court becomes vulnerable – Identification of the accused sitting in Court by the eyewitness is of utmost importance – Unless the eyewitnesses identify the accused present in Court, it cannot be said that, based on the testimony of the eyewitnesses, guilt of the accused has been proved – None of the eyewitnesses specifically identified any of the accused in the Court – Failure of the eyewitnesses to identify the accused in the court as the accused they had seen committing the crime is fatal to the prosecution’s case – There are material omissions brought on record in the cross-examination of the eyewitnesses – Versions of eyewitnesses differ – Guilt of the accused not been proved beyond reasonable doubt – Impugned judgment quashed and set aside – Penal Code, 1860 – ss.147, 148, 149, 302, 307. [Paras 21-26]
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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