Summary
The Court upheld the appellant’s convictions for culpable homicide and causing hurt, rejecting automatic parity with acquitted co-accused. The evidence of related witnesses required careful scrutiny rather than exclusion. Their consistent account of the appellant’s iron-rod attacks was supported by medical evidence, while the allegations against the others had distinct weaknesses. Partial rejection of testimony did not require its wholesale rejection.
Issues
- Whether acquittal of co-accused required the appellant’s acquittal on the same witnesses’ evidence.
- Whether relationship to the deceased or disbelief of part of a witness’s account required exclusion of the whole testimony.
Held
- Related or interested testimony may be relied upon after careful scrutiny. Relationship alone, without a reason to disbelieve the account, does not justify discarding it. (¶ 7)
- Acquittal of a co-accused does not automatically entitle another accused to acquittal when cogent, reliable evidence establishes the latter’s guilt. The nature and quality of the evidence against each must be compared. (¶¶ 8, 9, 10)
- The appellant’s attacks were consistently described and supported by the wound certificate and post-mortem report. The acquitted relatives faced materially different evidence, including exaggerated allegations absent from the complaint and no concrete proof of their causing injuries. (¶¶ 9, 10, 12)
- Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus is a rule of caution rather than a mandatory rule of evidence in India. Disbelief of the witnesses concerning the co-accused did not compel rejection of their reliable evidence concerning the appellant. (¶¶ 11, 12)
- The High Court had considered the whole evidence, including the appellant’s injuries and attempted complaint, when finding a free fight and reducing the murder conviction to Section 304 Part II. No infirmity warranting interference was demonstrated. (¶¶ 13, 14)
Result
Appeal dismissed; High Court’s convictions and concurrent sentences affirmed. Bail cancelled; appellant directed to surrender to serve the remaining sentence, failing which police were to take him into custody.