Sakhawat v. State of Uttar Pradesh
Background
In 1981, an FIR was registered against the appellants and a co-accused for the murder of one Sukha and the wounding of an eyewitness, PW-7, following a nighttime scuffle allegedly connected to an illicit relationship between the deceased and PW-7. The Trial Court convicted the two appellants in 1982 and sentenced them to life imprisonment; the Allahabad High Court upheld this conviction in 2018, prompting the present appeal more than four decades after the incident.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court found that three of the four eyewitnesses had, at the time of the accused's bail hearing, sworn affidavits stating the appellants were not the culprits: a fact admitted by the Investigating Officer in cross-examination, who nevertheless never verified or rebutted those affidavits during investigation. The Court held that this amounted to a failure of fair investigation and suppression of material evidence by the prosecution, creating serious doubt about the truthfulness of the surviving witness testimony. Since it was unsafe to convict solely on the remaining, uncorroborated testimony, the Court set aside the conviction and acquitted the appellants. The Court also reiterated its earlier direction that trial court records should never be referred to as "Lower Court Records."
Lesson Learnt
A fair investigation is part of the constitutional guarantee of a fair trial under Article 21. If the police suppress or fail to investigate evidence favourable to the accused (such as sworn affidavits from eyewitnesses), a conviction built on the remaining evidence can be unsafe and liable to be overturned, even decades later.