Listen to this articleKarulal & Ors. v The State of Madhya
Pradesh
Criminal Appeal No. 316 of 2011
decided on 9 October,
2020.
BENCH– NV Ramana, Surya Kant and Hrishikesh
Roy, JJ.
FACTS
On the day of incident, M, along with her
brother B, was working in the fields, B
reported that he suddenly heard his father’s crying as he was being attacked by
six assailants. B along with his sister rushed to spot immediately. Both of
them were sole eyewitness of the case. All the assailants who were equipped
with sharp edged lethal weapons ran away after seeing B and his sister coming
to the spot B and M with the help of villagers took their father’s body to
hospital and subsequently register an FIR.
ISSUE
Whether a court could rely on the related
witnesses’ testimony for the basis of conviction?
HELD
The Supreme Court answered the question is
affirmative and upheld the High Court and Trial Court judgement, convicting the
accused under Section 148, 302 and 149 of IPC. The Court also held that related
witnesses’ testimony, if found truthful can be the basis of conviction. The Hon’ble
Court while discussing the evidentiary value of a related witness relied on
number of precedents to conclude that merely because witness is related to
deceased would not necessarily mean that they have falsely implicated an innocent
person. Further the Hon’ble Court cited State
of Uttar Pradesh v Samman Dass(1972) 3 SCC 201, where Justice Khanna observed that “infact close relatives of a murdered person
are most reluctant to spare the real assailant and falsely involve another
person in place of assailant.”