Supreme Court Upholds Conviction in Murder Case, Relies on Eyewitness Account
September 20, 2023, 15:37 IST
Reported By: Sanya Talwar
The Supreme Court recently ruled that an eyewitness’s account of a murder cannot be expected to provide a blow-by-blow description of the crime. In a murder case, the court relied on ocular evidence rather than the opinion of a medical expert to uphold the conviction of Rameshji Amarsing Thakor. Thakor had appealed against a Gujarat High Court judgement that overturned his acquittal by a trial court.
The bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi dismissed discrepancies pointed out by Thakor and deemed them as minor. The court emphasized that the eyewitnesses consistently identified Thakor as the person responsible for stabbing the deceased, and there was no inconsistency in their accounts.
“The contradictions in the number of injuries and the recovered weapon were not fatal to the prosecution case. The opinion of the autopsy surgeon cannot overshadow the ocular evidence. The evidence of post-occurrence events is consistent,” stated the bench.
Thakor had argued that the injuries sustained by the deceased could not have been caused by the recovered knife, relying on the statement of the autopsy surgeon. However, the bench found sufficient corroborations between the eyewitness account and the testimonies of post-occurrence witnesses regarding the sequence of events following the infliction of injuries on the deceased.
The court referred to the SC judgement in the case of Darbara Singh vs State of Punjab (2012), which prioritized ocular evidence over the opinion of medical experts.
“We see no reason to interfere with the judgement under appeal. Exaggerated devotion to the rule of benefit of doubt should not promote unfounded doubts that allow the guilty to escape justice,” added the bench, quoting the case of ‘Gurbachan Singh Vs Satpal Singh and Others’ (1990).
It is worth noting that the two other accused persons, who were alleged to have held the deceased during the attack, were acquitted by the High Court due to reasonable doubt. The court refrained from commenting on this aspect of the judgment as there was no appeal by the state against their acquittal.
The case revolves around the murder of Jayantibhai on July 10, 1995, through multiple knife blows. The appellant, Thakor, was accused of carrying out the attack, while two others were accused of assisting him. The prosecution relied on the statement of an eyewitness and the dying declaration made before two other witnesses. The trial court initially acquitted all three accused based on medical evidence.
As the Supreme Court affirms the conviction in this murder case, it highlights the importance of ocular evidence in establishing criminal responsibility.
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