In Brief
In this murder case arising from a December 2005 incident, five accused were convicted by the trial court and High Court for killing a man (Bal Kishan) based solely on testimony from Mullo Bai, the victim's mother. The Supreme Court set aside the convictions of four appellants (accused nos. 2-5), finding the sole eyewitness account unreliable. The Court held that material contradictions and improvements existed between the witness's recorded statement and court deposition—particularly regarding identification in darkness without torch recovery and unsubstantiated claims about the appellants carrying weapons. The judgment reaffirmed that while conviction on sole witness testimony is permissible, it requires the witness to be trustworthy and free from significant contradictions, which were absent here.
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