Orissa High Court Upholds Conviction Of Accused Basing Upon Testimony Of ‘Injured Witness’ In 22 Yrs Old Murder Case
Case: Harekrushna Naik & Ors. v. State of Orissa
Coram: Chief Justice Dr. S. Muralidhar and Justice Chittaranjan Dash
Case No.: CRLA No. 70 of 2004
Court Observation: “Having carefully examined the evidence of P.W. 14, this Court is satisfied that his evidence is clear and consistent and lends assurance as to its truthfulness and reliability. It stands corroborated by the medical evidence as well as the evidence of P.W.7.”
“The law on the point can be summarised to the effect that the testimony of the injured witness is accorded a special status in law. This is as a consequence of the fact that the injury to the witness is an inbuilt guarantee of his presence at the scene of the crime and because the witness will not want to let his actual assailant go unpunished merely to falsely implicate a third party for the commission of the offence. Thus, the deposition of the injured witness should be relied upon unless there are strong grounds for rejection of his evidence on the basis of major contradictions and discrepancies therein.”
“evidence of the injured witnesses is entitled to a great weight and very cogent and convincing grounds are required to discard the evidence of the injured witnesses.”
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Keywords
Conviction Of Accused, Testimony Of ‘Injured Witness’
