AIROnline 2025 SC 624

Penal Code (45 of 1860) , S.302— Evidence Act (1 of 1872) , S.3— Murder – Interested witness – Reliability of testimony – Prosecution case that deceased accompanied co-accused to shop for consuming alcohol – However, on suspicion on co-accused, complainant son and wife of deceased decided to go to the shop and claimed to have left their residence on bicycle – On reaching shop, witnesses allegedly saw that co-accused had given signal to accused and he had attacked deceased with weapon – Son and wife of deceased were interested witnesses – It was highly improbable that both witnesses covered distance of 16 kilometers in thirty minutes on single bicycle – Presence of witnesses at crime spot was doubtful – Conduct of said witnesses in travelling back to their house first and then going to police station, despite there being police station en route from liquor shop to their home, was unnatural – Alleged eye-witnesses who were customers in shop were declared hostile – Injuries on body of deceased identified in post mortem report were unlikely to be caused by sole assailant and were more probably caused by group of individuals – Fact that deceased was habitual drunkard and convicted criminal, made it highly probable that deceased had enmity with many people who may have assaulted him and caused his death – Prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt – Conviction was set aside.
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