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State of U.P. v. Sunil

Criminal Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Criminal Appeal Nos. 1432-1434 of 2011)Decided 2 May 2017
Criminal Appeal Nos. 1432-1434 of 2011
Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose · Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman

Background

In a quadruple murder in Etawah, Uttar Pradesh in 2000, the complainant found her parents, two sisters, and their pet dog dead after her brother-in-law had earlier threatened the family over a monetary demand. The brother-in-law died during trial and the proceedings against him abated; the respondent (an alleged co-accused) was convicted by the trial court and sentenced to death on the strength of circumstantial evidence, including a disclosure-based recovery of a weapon and the respondent's refusal to give fresh fingerprint/footprint samples. The Allahabad High Court acquitted him, finding the prosecution's evidence unreliable, and the State and the complainant appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court examined whether compelling an accused to give fingerprints or footprints violates the constitutional protection against self-incrimination under Article 20(3), and held, relying on earlier rulings including State of Bombay v. Kathi Kalu Oghad and Selvi v. State of Karnataka, that it does not, though non-compliance may support an adverse inference which cannot by itself sustain a conviction. On the facts, the Court found the prosecution had failed to connect the respondent to the crime through reliable evidence, since the key witness's testimony was unreliable and the recovered weapon/articles could not be linked to him specifically. The High Court's acquittal was accordingly upheld and the appeals were dismissed.

Lesson Learnt

A criminal conviction based solely on circumstantial evidence requires an unbroken, fully-proved chain pointing only to the accused's guilt; being compelled to provide fingerprints/footprints is not itself unconstitutional, but refusing to do so can at most support an inference: it can never, by itself, justify a conviction.

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

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