Mallikarjun and Others v. State of Karnataka
Background
A father, two sons, and a third accused were alleged to have killed a young man who was believed to be having an affair with the wife of one of the accused (the father). The deceased's mother and brother witnessed the attack, which involved multiple accused stabbing and assaulting the victim with daggers and an axe handle. The trial court convicted all four accused of murder and house-trespass, and the Karnataka High Court upheld the conviction; three of them (one of the four accused was absconding) appealed to the Supreme Court.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court held that the evidence of the deceased's mother and brother, corroborated by medical evidence showing matching injuries, reliably proved the overt acts of the first two accused (the sons), and that a delay in recording the FIR or the fact that independent witnesses to a weapon recovery turned hostile did not undermine the prosecution's case, since the investigating officer's own testimony on recovery could still be relied upon. It also rejected the argument that the investigation was invalid because a police sub-inspector (rather than a circle inspector) handled it, holding the sub-inspector had authority to act when the circle inspector was unavailable. However, the Court found that the post-mortem report showed no injury matching the specific attack attributed to the fourth accused (the father), and that the FIR itself suggested only the two sons and the absconding accused were present at the critical moment, so it gave him the benefit of the doubt and acquitted him, while confirming the murder convictions and sentences of the two sons.
Lesson Learnt
A criminal conviction requires that the evidence specifically and credibly implicate each individual accused in the actual offence, even in a joint attack, if the physical/medical evidence does not match what one particular accused is alleged to have done, that person is entitled to the benefit of the doubt even while co-accused are rightly convicted.