"Impossible story concocted by prosecution:" Bombay High Court acquits 20 accused of murder

The Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court recently acquitted 20 persons accused of murder observing that the testimonies of the eyewitnesses were almost identical which was humanly impossible [Komal Babusingh Ade & Ors. v. State of Maharashtra & connected appeals]..In the judgement by Justices SB Shukre and PV Ganediwala, the Court recorded its disbelief that “six eye-witnesses deposed the occurrence of the incident in identical fashion with each and every minute detail, which in our considered opinion, is humanly impossible.”The Court therefore, said that it could not accept the contention that the testimonies were mutually corroborative since the testimonies were almost identical. .The Court observed that the identical and parrot-like version of all the star witnesses of the prosecution raised strong doubts about the truthfulness of their testimonies.“It is sheer an impossible story concocted by the prosecution which just cannot be believed and which also does not appeal to the reason,” the 56-page judgment stated..Appellant Komal Babusingh Ade and 23 others had been booked for an incident of murder and rioting which took place on Holi in 2014.The appellants allegedly assaulted four men, out of which one of them succumbed to his injuries.This led to a complaint by the mother of the deceased which led to an FIR. 23 persons were arrested.After a trial in which 29 witnesses were examined, the Additional Sessions Judge convicted 20 persons. Two accused were acquitted and one was not tried by the Sessions court since he was a juvenile..The trial court examined the 3 victims of assault and 3 eye-witnesses.On a careful scrutiny of the testimonies of these witnesses, the High Court observed that they are almost identical and there were hardly any dissimilarities in their versions.“It is like victims were not defending themselves but observing as to who is assaulting whom and with which weapon and the organ of the body. ...Had it been a case of one witness deposing with such minute details, it may have been believed presuming his extra-ordinary capacity of observing the things and recollecting the same. But here is the case of six witnesses including the injured witnesses,” the order authored by Justice Ganediwala stated..The Court noted that not a single independent witness was examined by the prosecution “even though the spot of the incident was a residential locality and there was a crowd of people seen on the spot when police reached the spot immediately after the incident.”When injured persons talk about assault on themselves and on the others in similar words a serious doubt creeps in prosecution evidence without corroboration from independent witnesses, the Bench stated allowing the appeals..[Read Judgment]