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Pradeep vs The State of Haryana

Criminal Appeal · 2023 INSC 599Decided 5 Jul 2023
Criminal Appeal No. 553 of 2012
Sanjay Karol as the second judge · Rajesh Bindal

Background

The appellant (accused no. 2) and a co-accused were convicted of murdering a woman named Bhanmati in her home at night in 2002, based mainly on the testimony of her 11-year-old son Ajay, the sole alleged eyewitness, who said the appellant held his mother down while the co-accused stabbed her. The Sessions Court and the Punjab and Haryana High Court both upheld the conviction and life sentence. The appellant challenged the reliability of the child witness's testimony before the Supreme Court, pointing to inconsistencies, the prosecution's failure to call the milkman (the first person the boy allegedly told), and a mismatch between his shoe and footprints found at the scene.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that while a child witness's testimony can support a conviction without independent corroboration, courts must scrutinize it with special care given a child's susceptibility to tutoring, and trial judges must properly conduct and record a preliminary examination confirming the child understands both the questions and the duty to speak the truth: here, that preliminary examination was found to be "very sketchy," involving only three basic questions. The Court found the boy's testimony carried real contradictions (such as a claimed matchstick light that made little practical sense) and, critically, the prosecution never explained why it dropped the milkman, the first person the boy spoke to and the one witness who could have ruled out tutoring, with the trial record showing the milkman was in fact "won over." The appellant's shoe also did not match footprint impressions taken at the scene. Finding the sole eyewitness account did not inspire confidence and drawing an adverse inference from the unexplained non-examination of key witnesses, the Court acquitted the appellant.

Lesson Learnt

A conviction resting entirely on one child witness demands rigorous scrutiny of both the fairness of the trial court's preliminary questioning and the surrounding evidence; unexplained gaps, like dropping a crucial early witness who could confirm or dispel tutoring, can be fatal to the prosecution's case even when a serious crime is alleged.

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

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