The statement given before dying should be investigated… and the Supreme Court approved the decision of the High Court, all the accused were acquitted.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has said that if someone gives an oral statement to his/her close relative before his/her death, then that statement should be examined very seriously. If the accused is convicted on the basis of such a statement, then the statement needs to be examined thoroughly. The Supreme Court has made the above comment while acquitting the accused. The lower court had convicted the accused on the basis of the statement of the deceased’s mother. The mother of the deceased had said that her son had taken the names of the accused before dying. The case came up for hearing before a bench led by Justice CT Ravikumar of the Supreme Court. In this matter, before dying, the young man had given a statement to his/her mother. The prosecution had argued for convicting the accused on the basis of this statement. The trial court had convicted the accused in the murder case.

This matter was challenged in the High Court. The High Court rejected the lower court’s decision. The High Court said that there was a contradiction in the statement of the deceased’s mother. Also, he/she was the one who had informed about the incident and did not tell the police about the statement given by his/her son before his/her death. But during the hearing in the trial court, the mother of the deceased stated that before dying, her son had verbally taken the name of the accused. The High Court’s decision was challenged in the Supreme Court.

SC agrees with the High Court’s decision
The Supreme Court agreed with the High Court’s decision. The Supreme Court said that a dying declaration is not concrete evidence and that too when the statement is oral. This statement was given in front of the close relative of the deceased i.e. the mother and in such a situation such statement needs to be examined very seriously. The statement of the youth’s mother is not credible and in such a situation the accused is given the benefit of doubt and is acquitted.

what is the whole matter
The incident is of October 1, 1996. According to the police, Ramzan Khan, Musaf Khan and Habib Khan had murdered Naseem Khan. The Sessions Court of Madhya Pradesh sentenced the accused to life imprisonment in the murder case of Naseem Khan. This case went before the Madhya Pradesh High Court and the High Court acquitted the accused. Madhya Pradesh government had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against this decision and the Supreme Court rejected the appeal and acquitted the accused.