Lack of arms report no ground to acquit accused, says HC

Kolkata: Upholding life sentence in a murder case where the victim was shot at by the accused, Calcutta High Court observed that failure to place arms report on record is remissness in investigation and cannot in all cases be a ground to acquit an accused.

The bench of Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Shampa Dutta (Paul) was moved by the accused challenging the life sentence by the trial court. The conviction was mostly based on the oral dying declaration of the victim.

On July 04, 2012 the victim was speaking with the accused near the former’s residence. The victim’s father heard a gunshot and rushed to the spot. His son told him he was shot by the accused in his abdomen. He was taken to a hospital with a bleeding injury but was referred to a nursing home where he expired the next day. The father lodged a police complaint and Section 302 (punishment for murder) was added upon the death of the victim.

The accused was arrested. His statement was videographed. Firearms such as a pistol, pipe gun with live cartridge and one empty cartridge were seized. The parents and the wife of the deceased were vital witnesses. All three deposed that the victim told them he was shot by the accused who was also seen fleeing the spot.

Defence counsel argued there were no eyewitnesses. Only interested witnesses (parents, wife) were examined. The exact words in the purported dying declaration were not proved. No report from the arms expert was produced. Independent witnesses did not support the recovery of firearms.

The court found the dying declaration to be credible as it was backed by medical evidence which proved death was due to gunshot injury. As for the arms report, the court observed that the failure to produce the arms report with regard to the seized weapons would not affect the credibility of the prosecution case. Neither did the court find reason to disbelieve the witness evidence by the victim’s kin.