In Brief
Satya Raj Singh was convicted of murdering Bhaiya alias Narendra under Section 302/34 IPC and sentenced to life imprisonment by the trial court; the High Court dismissed his appeal and upheld the conviction. In the Supreme Court, the appellant challenged the conviction on grounds that the eyewitness testimony was unreliable and the FIR was filed with unexplained delay. The Court upheld the conviction, finding that the eyewitness accounts of PW1 and PW3, who directly saw the appellant assault the victim with a knife, were credible, consistent, and corroborated by other witnesses and medical evidence. The delay in lodging the FIR was reasonable given the circumstances (incident at night, victim died shortly after, police station 25 km away). The appeal was dismissed.
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