Patna High Court acquits man who was sentenced to life imprisonment in murder case 25 years ago

A murder convict awarded life imprisonment twenty five years ago was recently acquitted by the Patna High Court for want of evidence in support of the victim's dying declaration, which was the sole basis of conviction [Balmiki Prasad Chourasia v. State of Bihar]..A Bench of Justices AM Badar and Sunil Kumar Panwar declined to hold the dying declaration of the deceased woman as the “sole basis for conviction” and acquitted the man accused of her murder..According to the Bench, the trial court, which awarded the life term punishment to the appellant, had erred in appreciating the evidence in support of the woman’s dying declaration.“We have noted that the learned trial court has completely misread the material evidence and has failed to consider the legal position in respect of appreciation of evidence concerning the dying declaration,” the Bench noted..More than twenty five years ago, a trial court in Munger had convicted the appellant for killing his wife in August 1993. The man is alleged to have inflicted fatal injuries to the woman, who was admitted to a hospital but gave a statement before she died. Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code was added to the case following which the man was charged and put on trial. He was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment on July 3, 1995..Before the High Court, counsel for the appellant argued that the dying declaration of the victim was “untrustworthy and unreliable” as it was not recorded after the victim's medical examination. He argued that the woman had succumbed to her injuries soon after the alleged incident and thus was not in a position to record her statement.The prosecution contended that the woman’s statement showed the appellant’s complicity in the crime..The Bench underlined that in order to pass the test of reliability, a dying declaration was required to be "subjected to a close scrutiny and it had to be kept in mind that such a statement was made in the absence of the accused," who does not have an opportunity of testing the veracity of such a statement by way of a cross-examination.“If the dying declaration fails to pass the test of reliability and truthfulness, then the same is required to be ignored from consideration. There is no rule of law that the dying declaration must be recorded by a particular authority,” it added..After examining the declaration, the Court observed that it was written “mechanically in the format in which police usually records” the statement of a victim or of witnesses. The declaration was therefore stated to be “doubtful and suspicious”, one that was unexpected from a person suffering a serious injury on vital parts of her body after heavy blood loss."Deceased Mira Kumari was a rustic villager. It does not stand to reason that she was able to narrate the minute details of the incident and referring the intention of the assailant to commit her murder,” the Court noted..According to the Bench, the statement looked “artificial in nature” besides having no resemblance of a statement of a dying person. The Court also commented on the manner in which the victim’s statement was recorded by a police officer before her death, observing:“It seems that this police officer had shown his over enthusiasm in getting the statement of the deceased Mira Kumari alias Shakuntala Devi prepared without getting her examined to ascertain her fitness from the attending medical officer from the Government Hospital, where she was taking medical treatment.”While setting aside the judgment of the trial court, the Court acquitted the appellant of the offence..The Court appreciated the efforts of the appellant’s legal aid counsel, Amish Kumar, for his assistance. Additional Public Prosecutor Ajay Mishra represented the State. .[Read Judgment]