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The State of Andhra Pradesh v. Pullagummi Kasi Reddy Krishna Reddy @ Rama Krishna Reddy

Criminal Appeal · 2018 INSC 570Decided 3 Jul 2018
Criminal Appeal Nos. 2089-2090 of 2009
Justice S.A. Bobde · Justice L. Nageswara Rao

Background

In a faction-ridden village in Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh, long-running rivalry between two groups culminated in an ambush on 30 October 1994 in which four men travelling to a police station (to comply with a bail condition) were killed by a mob using country-made bombs, sickles, and iron pipes. A trial court convicted several of the 47 accused of murder, but the Andhra Pradesh High Court later acquitted all of them, disbelieving the eyewitnesses as biased because they belonged to the rival faction. The State of Andhra Pradesh appealed the mass acquittal to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court had wrongly discarded the eyewitness testimony wholesale merely because the witnesses belonged to the opposing faction, noting that Indian law rejects the principle of "falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus" (false in one thing, false in everything): a witness's evidence can still support conviction of some accused even if disbelieved regarding others. After carefully re-examining which specific accused were identified with definite weapons and overt acts by credible witnesses, the Court restored convictions under Section 302 IPC (with life imprisonment) for nine of the accused, including Pullagummi Kasi Reddy Krishna Reddy (A-13), who was found to have thrown the bomb that killed one victim, while upholding the acquittal of the remaining accused for whom no specific role was proved.

Lesson Learnt

Courts must evaluate each accused's individual role and evidence rather than rejecting an entire eyewitness account just because the witness is affiliated with one side of a feud; partial acceptance of testimony against specific, clearly-identified accused is legally permissible even where the same testimony fails against others.

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

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