In Brief
A man was set ablaze in a Delhi market in December 1997. He sustained 100% burn injuries and died in hospital. There was no eyewitness. The prosecution relied on two statements the victim made shortly before death: one to a doctor upon admission (recorded in the Medical-Legal Case report) and one to a police officer a few hours later. Both statements named the appellants as assailants and provided specific details of their occupations and addresses. The trial court and High Court accepted these statements as reliable dying declarations. The Supreme Court upheld the convictions for murder under Section 302 IPC read with Section 34, holding that dying declarations which inspire confidence can sustain conviction without corroboration. The court rejected arguments that 100% burns undermined credibility, finding the victim was mentally fit and the statements bore intrinsic evidence of truth through specific details only he could provide.
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