In Brief
Nand Lal, Bhagwat, Ramdular, and Naresh Kumar appealed their conviction for murder under Sections 302 and 149 of the Indian Penal Code. The crime allegedly occurred during a night attack on the deceased Kartikram's house. The Supreme Court allowed the appeals and acquitted the appellants, finding that the prosecution case rested solely on interested eyewitness testimony without sufficient corroboration. Critical factors influencing the decision were: the appellants' names did not appear in contemporaneous police documents but only in the FIR; an unexplained four-hour delay in lodging the FIR; and crucially, the prosecution failed to explain grievous injuries sustained by accused No. 11, indicating suppression of the case's true genesis. The Court held that conviction cannot rest on oral testimony of interested witnesses lacking independent corroboration, especially where previous enmity created risk of false implication.
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