The Supreme Court has released a man sentenced to life imprisonment in a murder case after learning that the entire case against him was based on the blind trust in the spotless reputation of the star witness as a “literate and god-fearing” person.
“A court of law cannot declare the reputation of a person based upon its own opinion merely because a person is educated and said to be God-fearing, that by itself will not create a positive reputation,” the Supreme Court said in a recent judgment.
The case was based on the death of a woman 20 years ago in Himachal Pradesh. The prime witness was her neighbour. He heard her cries for help and claimed to have seen two men, one of whom made a grab at him too. Later, the police found the body of the woman in her house.
