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Prem Singh v. Sukhdev Singh & Others

Criminal Appeal · 2019 INSC 1158Decided 17 Oct 2019
Criminal Appeal No. 1560 of 2019
Justice Deepak Gupta · Justice Aniruddha Bose

Background

A man was fatally attacked outside a hospital in Punjab: stabbed and then shot by several accused who arrived in a vehicle, allegedly arising from a land dispute. The trial court convicted the accused of murder and related offences, but the High Court overturned the conviction and acquitted them. Both the victim's relative and the State appealed to the Supreme Court against the acquittal.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court examined the eyewitness and medical evidence and found several inconsistencies undermining the prosecution's case, including a mismatch between the number of gunshot wounds described by eyewitnesses and those actually found by the doctor, an unexplained delay/detour in lodging the FIR instead of going straight to the police, and a failure to link the seized vehicle or firearms forensically to the accused. Because the medical evidence did not support the eyewitness account and other suspicious circumstances remained unexplained, the Court held there was no merit in the appeals and dismissed them, upholding the High Court's acquittal.

Lesson Learnt

In criminal appeals, courts give significant weight to whether eyewitness testimony is corroborated by medical and forensic evidence; unexplained contradictions between the two can be fatal to a prosecution case even where eyewitnesses are available.

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

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