Testimonies of relatives can be relied upon: SC

17 Oct 2007 The Times of India

NEW DELHI: The testimonies of witnesses cannot be rejected merely because they happen to be family members or relatives of the deceased, the Supreme Court has held.

"The mere fact that all the eye-witnesses belong to one family cannot be a reason to disbelieve their evidence, since they were all on the spot or nearby the spot when the incident occurred," the apex court observed, upholding the life sentence on five persons in a murder case.

It rejected the plea of the defence that testimonies of the deceased's relatives cannot be entertained as they were "interested witnesses" and there was a history of previous enmity between the families of the deceased and the accused.

A bench of Justices P P Naolekar and Altamas Kabir, however, quashed the life sentence imposed on three others - Bhagga, Shankara and Bahadura as the prosecution failed to establish their "common object" of hacking to death one Babulal.

The deceased was hacked to death at Madhya Pradesh's Burhanpur village on June 4, 1986 by the accused after Babulal objected to one of the accused chopping off two trees from his fields. His wife Raina Bai and another relative Gyan Bai suffered injuries when they tried to rescue him.

A session court convicted the accused persons to life imprisonment which was affirmed by the Madhya Pradesh High Court. The convictions were based on dying declaration of Babulal, besides testimonies of Raina Bai and other relatives who claimed to be present at the time of the murder.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Testimonies_of_relatives_can_be_relied_upon_SC_/articleshow/2467031.cms

With Thanks from the Times of India

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