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SIDDHARTHA VARMA, RAM MANOHAR NARAYAN MISHRA
Ram Babu – Appellant
Versus
State of U. P. – Respondent
JUDGMENT :
Siddhartha Varma, J.
1. This criminal appeal has been filed against the judgment and order dated 23.05.1983 passed by the Sessions Judge, Jalaun at Orai by which the appellant Ram Babu was convicted under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (henceforth called the "IPC") read with Section 201 IPC and punished the appellant under Section 302 IPC with life imprisonment and under Section 201 IPC with a rigorous imprisonment of two years.
2. The brief facts of the case are that upon an incident which allegedly occurred on 21.8.1982 at around 7.30 to 8.00 PM, a First Information Report (henceforth called the "FIR") was lodged in that regard on 22.11.1982 at 7.05 AM. As per the FIR, the brother of the first informant namely Jagram, who was gambling with the accused persons Ram Babu and Kisna, was killed in the house of Ram Babu because the deceased Jagram had won in the gambling and Ram Babu and Kisna had asked for the return of their money. When Jagram had refused to return that money, then, it is alleged, the accused persons Ram Babu and Kisna had killed the deceased. It has been stated that Kisna had used an axe to kill the deceased while Ram Babu was responsible for throttlin
The court emphasized the necessity of corroborative evidence and the unreliability of chance witnesses in criminal proceedings, leading to the acquittal of the accused.
Point of law: Every person who witnesses a murder reacts in his own way. Some are stunned, become speechless and stand rooted to the spot. Some become hysteric and start wailing. Some start shouting ....
Interested evidence is not necessarily unreliable and should be scrutinized with care but cannot be rejected merely on the ground of being partisan. Minor discrepancies and contradictions should not ....
A witness's credibility must withstand scrutiny; inconsistencies in eyewitness accounts can undermine the prosecution's case to the point of reasonable doubt, leading to acquittal.
In convictions based on circumstantial evidence, the prosecution must establish a clear chain of circumstances that conclusively points to the defendant's guilt, while also excluding any hypotheses o....
The court emphasized that witness reliability is critical in criminal cases, and testimonies lacking credibility cannot warrant a conviction.
The testimony of chance witnesses must be scrutinized rigorously, and without credible corroborating evidence, convictions cannot be sustained.
Point of Law : While appreciating the evidence of a witness, minor discrepancies on trivial matters, which do not affect the core of the prosecution case, may not prompt the court to reject the evide....
The judgment established the principle that the evidence of a single eyewitness must be reliable and corroborated by independent evidence from the attending circumstances of the case. The court empha....
Point of Law : A wife, who has seen an assailant giving fatal blows with a stick to her husband, would name the assailant to all present and to the police at an earliest opportunity.
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