Part of the Forensic Docket on Legal Desire Forensics — a conviction confirmed through final appeal, kept here as a method-of-crime record.
The facts
The accused was convicted of murder under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC and sentenced to life imprisonment by the trial court, a conviction affirmed by the High Court.
On further appeal, the Supreme Court held that the fatal injuries sustained by the deceased could not have been self-inflicted, and that the death was homicidal.
The eyewitnesses were found consistent in narrating how the deceased was attacked by the accused and a co-accused, giving specific reference to the weapons used, and this account was further supported by the medical evidence.
Finding no infirmity in the verdict of the courts below, the Supreme Court upheld the conviction.
Status: conviction upheld through final appeal.
Why this belongs in the Forensic Docket: Shows medical evidence performing its most basic but essential forensic function: ruling out self-infliction or suicide and confirming a homicidal death, thereby anchoring eyewitness testimony about the manner of attack.
Case details
| Citation | [2013] 1 S.C.R. 168 |
| Case number | Criminal Appeal No. 517/2008 |
| Court | Indian Supreme Court |
| Decided | 2013-01-07 |
| Module | MO Archive |
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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