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Selvamani vs The State Rep. by the Inspector of Police

Not available · 2024 INSC 393Decided 8 May 2024
Not available
Justice B.R. Gavai · Justice Sandeep Mehta

Background

In January 2006, a 22-year-old woman working at a shoe company in Vaniyampadi, Tamil Nadu was allegedly gang-raped by the company's manager/owner and four other accused persons near a railway bridge, after being lured there under a pretext. She was assaulted through the night and escaped the next morning, later lodging an FIR. The trial court convicted the accused (including the present appellant, Accused No. 2) under Section 376(2)(g) (gang rape) and Section 506(1) (criminal intimidation) of the IPC, and the Madras High Court upheld the conviction. The appellant challenged this before the Supreme Court, relying partly on the fact that some prosecution witnesses had turned hostile or resiled from their original statements at trial.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court noted that a long, unjustified gap between examination-in-chief and cross-examination of witnesses (caused by repeated adjournments) had allowed the accused to influence witnesses into resiling from their earlier testimony: a recurring problem the Court had flagged in prior judgments. Despite this, the Court found that the victim's testimony was sufficiently corroborated by her mother's and aunt's evidence, the FIR, her statement under Section 164 CrPC, and medical evidence, and distinguished a precedent the appellant relied on (which involved much lesser injuries). Finding no reason to interfere with the concurrent findings of the trial court and High Court, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal and upheld the conviction. The Court also directed that copies of the judgment be circulated to all High Court Chief Justices, urging trial judges not to allow indefinite gaps between examination-in-chief and cross-examination, since such delays are exploited to make witnesses turn hostile.

Lesson Learnt

Courts increasingly scrutinize delays in criminal trials that allow witnesses to be "won over" between chief examination and cross-examination; even if witnesses turn hostile later, a conviction can stand if the core testimony is corroborated by independent evidence such as an FIR, medical reports, and consistent statements of other witnesses.

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

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