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Tanaji Shamrao Kale v. State of Maharashtra

Criminal Appeal · 2025 INSC 323Decided 5 Mar 2025
Crl.A. No.-001145-001145 - 2011

Background

A long-running dispute over irrigation water drawn through a shared pipeline had strained relations between two related families in a Maharashtra village. In July 2001, the accused, including the appellant Tanaji and his relatives, allegedly attacked and killed Murlidhar with swords after a confrontation stemming from this dispute. Of nine accused, one was acquitted at trial (having proved an alibi) while the rest, including Tanaji, were convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment; the Bombay High Court upheld the conviction. Tanaji and three co-accused (whose separate special leave petition was tagged with this appeal) challenged their convictions before the Supreme Court, with Tanaji also raising a specific alibi defence that he was away on police duty at the relevant time.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court scrutinised the testimony of the three eyewitnesses (PW-1, PW-2 and PW-5) and found no material contradictions or omissions serious enough to discredit their accounts of the assault and the roles played by each accused. It held that minor omissions in police statements, such as one witness not mentioning an incidental detail about attending a class beforehand, did not amount to contradictions under the CrPC. On Tanaji's alibi, the Court noted that while a witness confirmed he was assigned duty elsewhere on those two days, he had not actually proven he was at that location when the murder occurred, so the alibi failed. Since the eyewitness evidence was of "sterling quality," the non-examination of other possible eyewitnesses was not fatal to the prosecution's case, and the appeals were dismissed, with directions for the appellant to surrender to serve his remaining sentence.

Lesson Learnt

A conviction can safely rest on the testimony of a small number of credible, largely consistent eyewitnesses even without corroboration from every possible witness, and an alibi defence fails unless the accused affirmatively proves he was elsewhere when the crime occurred, not merely that he had other duties assigned around that time.

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

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