13
25.
Ms. Prakash also contended that PW-10 Dilip Sen is a chance witness
whose testimony is unreliable because it contains contradictions and material
improvements. It contains a material contradiction regarding his reporting to the
police about seeing all the three accused. In his examination-in-chief, he stated
that he read about the incident in the newspaper and therefore, went and
informed the police about the incident. In his cross examination, however, he
said that he did not read the newspaper and went to the police station without
reading the newspaper. He also mentions going to the police station for another
reason (to get a gumasta license) and upon overhearing discussions going on
there about this case, he volunteered information. Further his testimony is
unbelievable as, given the description of the scene of crime, the clothes of the
accused should have also been smeared with blood. The recovery memos of the
clothes of the accused (Ex. P29, P32, and P35) shows that the clothes worn by
the accused on the day of the incident were light in colour on which blood
would have been easily visible. Moreover, PW-10 explained his presence near
the place of occurrence since he wanted to check if House No. 23 was available
for rental purposes. However, the prosecution has not sufficiently established
his presence near the place of occurrence as the owner of House No. 23 was not
examined and no other evidence was led to confirm the presence of PW-10 at
the place of occurrence. PW-10 further improved from his statement under
Section 161 CrPC (Ex. D7) with respect to Neha’s presence at the place.
Likewise, learned counsel submitted that PW-8 Achyutmal Tejwani (whose
deposition was relied on by the prosecution, to say that he treated Manoj), is an
unreliable witness. His credentials as a medical practitioner, was doubted:
counsel relied on the witnesses’ cross-examination and submitted that this
witness had migrated to India from Pakistan, and in all probability was
beholden to the police.
26.
Learned counsel submitted that the delay of 25 days in conducting the test
identification parade (TIP) is unexplained. The delay assumes significance since
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