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Keshav Dutt v. State of Haryana — Handwriting expert evidence, uncorroborated

Part of the Forensic Docket on Legal Desire Forensics — a case where forensic or identification evidence broke down on appeal.

The facts

The appellant was not present at the scene when a bribe amount was recovered from a co-accused.

The only evidence connecting him to the transaction was a handwriting expert’s report.

The Court held a handwriting opinion, standing entirely alone with nothing to corroborate it, could not sustain the conviction.

Why this belongs in the Forensic Docket: An expert opinion is corroborating evidence, not a substitute for it. Handwriting analysis as the sole link in the chain is a chain that breaks.

Case details

Citation[2010] 10 S.C.R. 151
Case numberCriminal Appeal No. 465/2010
CourtIndian Supreme Court
Decided2010
ModuleFailure Registry

Read the full judgment (PDF), sourced from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open dataset (AWS Open Data Registry, CC-BY-4.0).

Explore more in the Forensic Docket or browse the full Forensics hub.

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