Unsafe to convict on suspicious dying statement without corroborative evidence: SC-OxBig News Network

Stating that it is unsafe to convict a person solely on the basis of a suspicious dying declaration without corroborative evidence, the Supreme Court has acquitted a man accused of his wife’s murder.

Noting that a dying declaration was an important piece of evidence, a Bench of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah said, “If a dying declaration is surrounded by doubt or there are inconsistent dying declarations by the deceased, then courts must look for corroborative evidence to find out which dying declaration is to be believed.”

It said a conviction could be made by relying solely on it as it held immense importance in criminal law. “However, such reliance should be placed after ascertaining the quality of the dying declaration and considering the entire facts of a given case,” the Bench said in its March 4 verdict, acquitting a man convicted of murdering his wife by setting her on fire in September 2008.

The trial court had convicted him on the basis of his wife’s dying declaration. However, the Bench asked courts to act cautiously in such matters. “In cases where the dying declaration is suspicious, it is not safe to convict an accused in the absence of corroborative evidence,” it said.

The victim gave two statements that were “totally different” from her subsequent testimonies, including the one made before the judicial magistrate that became her official dying declaration, it said. Investigation ruled out the angle of dowry harassment.

Relations between the families of the accused and the woman had soured and a couple of years after the woman’s death, the man’s brother had filed an assault case against his father­-in-law and brother-in-­law.

Allowing his appeal, the Bench set aside a Madras High Court’s February 2012 order that had upheld his conviction and life sentence for the alleged offence of murder.

The prosecution alleged that the woman succumbed to burn injuries in a hospital three weeks after being set on fire by the husband. The couple lived in Tuticorin with their minor son.

The woman told the police in the hospital the fire was due to an accident in the kitchen. However, three days later, the police recorded another statement of the victim in which she claimed her husband set her on fire by pouring kerosene, the top court noted.