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Sarasamma @ Saraswathiyamma v. The State Rep. by Deputy Superintendent of Police and Others

Criminal Appeal · 2018 INSC 468Decided 9 May 2018
Criminal Appeal No. 713 of 2018
Justice N.V. Ramana · Justice S. Abdul Nazeer

Background

The appellant's husband was murdered at a bus stand because he had witnessed an earlier murder; the real accused allegedly evaded justice for years by colluding with investigating police officers who falsely substituted an imposter with the same first name as the accused in the charge-sheet. After the fraud came to light and a supplementary charge-sheet was filed against the real accused (a former MLA alleged to wield significant influence over 15 villages) and the complicit police officers, the trial dragged on with a large number of witnesses, including several official witnesses, turning hostile. The appellant sought transfer of the trial out of Hosur, fearing she could not get a fair trial given the accused's local influence; the Madras High Court rejected the transfer request (in this case and in a related case involving the murder of another witness's husband by overlapping accused), merely granting liberty to seek police protection.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found the appellant's apprehension of an unfair trial reasonable and well-founded, given the accused's alleged "iron grip" over the local area (as admitted in the State's own counter-affidavit), the unusually high number of witnesses, including official witnesses, turning hostile, and the pattern of alleged police collusion in concealing the true accused's identity. Applying the principle that transfer under Section 407 CrPC is warranted where there is a reasonable apprehension that a fair and impartial trial is not possible at the current venue, and noting the accused would suffer no prejudice from a transfer, the Court allowed both connected appeals and transferred both criminal trials from the Additional Sessions Court, Hosur, to the Principal Sessions Court, Salem, Tamil Nadu, directing expeditious and unbiased completion of trial without being influenced by any of the Court's observations.

Lesson Learnt

A criminal trial can be shifted to another court when there is credible, admitted evidence that local political or criminal influence of the accused is undermining witnesses' ability to testify freely (reflected in a high rate of hostile witnesses): the law treats "justice must not only be done but seem to be done" as a real, enforceable safeguard, not just a slogan.

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

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