Criminal Lawyer: In case of animosity - it is unsafe to rely upon sole testimony; SC.

Supreme Court of India

Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice Navin Sinha

The SC {Jagdish And Another v. State of Haryana} holds that it is unbelievable that in assault by 13 persons who had surrounded the deceased at night - PW 1 was the sole eye-witness and had seen all of them. It was held that the deposition of PW 1 that he had seen all the accused is improbable as even if light was burning some of them undoubtedly must have had their back to PW-1 making their identification improbable.

It was further held as sole witness PW-1 was doubted by the trial court and the High Court to give acquittal to other accused persons, then, the said sole witness alone cannot be relied upon to convict the appellants/ accused before the SC, in absence of any other evidence - when there was previous enmity between the parties. In view of that, the SC holds to rely upon sole testimony of PW-1 to convict the appellants is unsafe, and the conviction of the appellants/ accused were set aside u/s 302, 149 and 148 IPC.