In Brief
On 16 March 2003, sixteen men allegedly blocked and attacked a milk vendor named Mohan Kumar with weapons, inflicting fifteen injuries. His wife, who tried to protect him, was also seriously injured. The victim died; the wife survived and reported the incident. The trial court acquitted all accused, but the High Court convicted seven of them for unlawful assembly and murder. The Supreme Court upheld the High Court's conviction, holding that the injured wife's eyewitness account was credible and prevailed over medical evidence about time of death. The defence theory that the wife had conspired with another man to kill her husband lacked evidentiary foundation and had not been put to her in cross-examination. The Court dismissed the appellants' appeals and upheld their life sentences.
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