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Kali Prasad Singh Etc. v. The State of Uttar Pradesh

Criminal Appeal · 2019 INSC 412Decided 28 Mar 2019
Criminal Appeal Nos. 1460-1461 of 2010
Justice Arun Mishra · Justice Navin Sinha

Background

On the night of 18 February 2000 in Varanasi, the deceased, Surendra Singh, was shot and killed by two assailants who approached him from a side lane while he was walking home with his brother, the complainant. The complainant witnessed the shooting and recognized the accused using light from a nearby house; a constable who lived in the area also came out upon hearing the commotion and saw the assailants fleeing. The accused were convicted of murder under Section 302 IPC by the Sessions Court and sentenced to life imprisonment, a conviction the Allahabad High Court upheld on appeal.

Decision Breakdown

Before the Supreme Court, the defense argued that the sole eyewitness's testimony was unreliable, that the FIR had been "ante-timed" (backdated) to fit the prosecution's story, that there was no adequate source of light to allow identification, and that the absence of blackening (gunpowder residue) around the entry wounds cast doubt on the claim that the shots were fired at close range. The Court examined each point in detail and rejected them all: it found the FIR's timing fully explained and corroborated by police records, found there was sufficient light from a nearby house for identification, found the eyewitness's account credible and corroborated by a second witness, and accepted the explanation that the victim's jacket (not distance) accounted for the absence of blackening. The Court upheld the conviction and dismissed the appeals, confirming the life sentence.

Lesson Learnt

A conviction based on a single reliable eyewitness can be upheld even years into the appellate process, provided the witness's account is internally consistent, corroborated by other evidence, and the defense's technical objections (such as FIR timing or forensic details) don't actually undermine the substance of the prosecution's case.

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

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