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Supreme Court of India 2024-04-18 allowed

KIRPAL SINGH vs STATE OF PUNJAB

Bench: 2 — B.R. Gavai, Sandeep Mehta

In Brief

The appellant was convicted of murder and attempted murder based on testimony from the victim's wife and son, who witnessed an attack on the deceased in his bedroom. The Supreme Court reversed the conviction, finding the principal prosecution witnesses wholly unreliable. The Court identified numerous inherent improbabilities in the prosecution narrative: the accused had no logical reason to descend and expose himself after killing the victim; the witnesses' subsequent conduct of removing the deceased's body from the hospital to home contradicted standard procedure for reported homicides; the witnesses' later allegations of partisan investigation, despite initially failing to name the co-accused, created grave credibility doubts. No weapon was recovered from the accused, and no corroborating evidence existed. The Court held that without reliable testimony and corroborating evidence, the conviction could not stand, and acquitted the appellant."

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Criminal Law Murder Attempted Murder Evidence Witness Credibility Criminal Appeal

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