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Bimla Devi v. Rajesh Singh & Anr.

Criminal Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Criminal Appeal No. 1033 of 2010)Decided 16 Dec 2015
Criminal Appeal No. 1033 of 2010
Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose · Justice R.K. Agrawal

Background

In December 1998, a father-in-law and a husband were shot dead in a village in Rohtas district, Bihar, and the widow (the informant) named several men in her first statement to the police. The trial court convicted several accused, including Rajesh Singh, and sentenced them to life imprisonment. The Patna High Court acquitted Rajesh Singh, upheld the convictions of the others, and both sides then appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Court dismissed all the appeals. It upheld Rajesh Singh's acquittal because he was not named in the first statement or the police statement, first appeared as an accused about two years later at trial, and was not identified by the independent witnesses. It upheld the convictions of the other accused because six eyewitnesses gave consistent accounts that were corroborated by medical and recovery evidence. It held that a one-day delay in sending the FIR to the magistrate and overwriting of the name in the inquest report did not prejudice the case. It rejected the informant's plea for the death penalty, reaffirming that life imprisonment is the rule and death the exception, reserved for the "rarest of rare" cases, and found this was a family feud.

Lesson Learnt

A person who is not named in the earliest reports is much harder to rely on as an identified culprit, but minor procedural errors do not automatically defeat a case where the evidence is otherwise credible. Courts do not impose the death penalty just because a crime is brutal; it is reserved for the rarest cases.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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