The Madras High Court on Friday set aside the conviction and life sentence imposed by a trial court in a murder case. It held that it would not be safe to convict the accused when all independent witnesses, including the eyewitnesses and recovery witnesses, had turned hostile during their examination before the trial court.
Justices S. Vaidyanathan and A.D. Jagadish Chandira held that the trial court had misled itself into a “specious” reasoning that there was corroboration between the medical evidence and the statements of the witnesses recorded by a magistrate, during the course of investigation, under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr.PC).
