SC frees 6 murder accused 'with heavy heart' as 71 of 87 witnesses turn hostile

New Delhi, The Supreme Court on Friday "with a heavy heart" acquitted six murder accused after majority witnesses, including the victim's son, turned hostile in the case.
The "unsolved crime" saw 71 of the total 87 witnesses retracting from their statements.
A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and K Vinod Chandran set aside the Karnataka High Court's September 27, 2023 order which rejected the trial court's finding and convicted the six accused in the case.
"With a heavy heart for the unsolved crime, but with absolutely no misgivings on the issue of lack of evidence, against the accused arrayed, we acquit the accused, reversing the judgment of the high court and restoring that of the trial court," Justice Chandran said in a 49-page verdict he authored on behalf of the bench.
The bench lamented the witnesses turning hostile in court and the "overzealous" investigation which was in "total ignorance of basic tenets of criminal law" often reducing "prosecution to a mockery".
"Witnesses mount the box to disown prior statements, deny recoveries made, feign ignorance of aggravating circumstances spoken of during investigation and eye witnesses turn blind. Here is a classic case of 71 of the total 87 witnesses including eye witnesses, turning hostile, leaving the prosecution to stand on the testimony of the police and official witnesses," the bench said.
The court went on, "Even a young boy, the crucial eyewitness, who saw his father being hacked to death, failed to identify the assailants."
The high court, the top court said, relied on the testimony of the police and official witnesses to convict the accused.
"We cannot but say that the high court has egregiously erred in convicting the accused on the evidence led and has jumped into presumptions and assumptions based on the story scripted by the prosecution without any legal evidence being available," the bench said.
After analysing the evidence and the testimonies of the witnesses, the court's "only view" held the prosecution's utter failure in proving the allegations against the accused.
"More so all the witnesses had turned hostile during the trial," it added.
"Whatever be the reason behind such hostility, it cannot result in a conviction, based on the testimony of the investigating officers which is founded only on Section 161 CrPC statements and voluntary statements of accused; the former violative of Section 162 of the CrPC and the latter in breach of Sections 25 and 26 of the Evidence Act," the bench held.
Directing the release of the accused, if in custody and not required in any other case, the court said, "Truth is always a chimera and the illusion surrounding it can only be removed by valid evidence led, either direct or indirect, and in the event of it being circumstantial, providing a chain of circumstances with connecting links leading to the conclusion of the guilt of the accused and only the guilt of the accused, without leaving any reasonable doubt for any hypothesis of innocence."
The bench said it could only accede to and share the consternation of the division bench of the high court, "bordering on desperation" owing to the "futility" of the entire exercise.
"That is an occupational hazard, every judge should learn to live with, which cannot be a motivation to tread the path of righteousness and convict those accused somehow, even when there is a total absence of legal evidence; to enter into a purely moral conviction, total anathema to criminal jurisprudence," it added.
It came on record that a rivalry between two brothers resulted in the death of one Ramkrishna, who worked for one of them before joining the other brother.
The former employee along with his six associates conspired and killed Ramkrishna for shifting loyalties when he was taking stroll with his son on April 28, 2011, the police alleged.

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