Mahendra Singh v. State of Uttaranchal — Medical evidence on gunshot range contradicting prosecution’s account

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

The facts

The accused was convicted under Section 302 and sentenced to life imprisonment for a gunshot injury that caused the victim’s death, with the defence pleading that the injury was caused during a scuffle.

The Supreme Court found that the prosecution witnesses’ account and the site plan, which suggested the shot had been fired from a distance of fourteen to eighteen feet, was not supported by the medical evidence.

The medical findings instead showed a gunshot wound with tattooing marks around the entry point and a separate exit wound — features indicating a much closer-range shot than the prosecution’s version allowed.

The Court also noted that the accused himself had sustained injuries.

In light of this medical evidence contradicting the prosecution’s stated firing distance and the mutual injuries, the Court found it plausible that the incident arose from a scuffle rather than as alleged, and the appeal was allowed.

Why this belongs in the Forensic Docket: Tattooing and powder-burn patterns around a gunshot wound can independently establish firing distance, and here that medical detail directly contradicted eyewitness testimony about how far the shooter stood — a reminder that ballistic/wound-pattern evidence should be checked against, not simply layered onto, witness accounts of distance.

Case details

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.