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State of Karnataka v. P. Ravikumar @ Ravi

Criminal Appeal · 2018 INSC 716Decided 16 Aug 2018
Criminal Appeal Nos. 1428-1429 of 2013
Justice R. Banumathi · Justice Vineet Saran

Background

The prosecution alleged that the wife of the deceased was having an illicit relationship with the first accused, and that she and two others conspired to murder her husband, who was found dead by the roadside in 2003. The trial court convicted all three accused of murder and criminal conspiracy, but the High Court, on appeal, acquitted the second and third accused (the respondents in this case) while upholding the conviction of the first accused. The State of Karnataka challenged this partial acquittal before the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court examined the evidence against the two acquitted respondents, which rested mainly on extra-judicial confessions to prosecution witnesses and circumstantial material such as photographs suggesting an illicit relationship. The Court found that one key witness had turned hostile and resiled from his statement, that an extra-judicial confession is inherently weak evidence requiring independent corroboration which was lacking here, and that the photographic evidence at most showed a relationship but not a conspiracy to murder. Finding no "compelling reason" or "substantial infirmity" to disturb the High Court's reasoned acquittal, the Supreme Court dismissed the State's appeals and upheld the acquittal of both respondents.

Lesson Learnt

An extra-judicial confession is treated as weak evidence in Indian criminal law and cannot by itself sustain a conviction unless corroborated by independent, reliable evidence, and an appellate court will not disturb a reasoned acquittal in the absence of a compelling reason or substantial infirmity in that finding.

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

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