83 “17. It is also our experience that invariably the witnesses add embroidery to prosecution story, perhaps for the fear of being disbelieved. But that is no ground to throw the case overboard, if true, in the main. If there is a ring of truth in the main, the case should not be rejected. It is the duty of the court to cull out the nuggets of truth from the evidence unless there is reason to believe that the inconsistencies or falsehood are so glaring as utterly to destroy confidence in the witnesses. It is necessary to remember that a Judge does not preside over a criminal trial merely to see that no innocent man is punished. A Judge also presides to see that a guilty man does not escape. One is as important as the other. Both are public duties which the Judge has to perform.” In C. Muniappan v. State of Tamil Nadu63 it was held that: “The defect in the investigation by itself cannot be a ground for acquittal. If primacy is given to such designed or negligent investigations or to the omissions or lapses by perfunctory investigation, the faith and confidence of the people in the criminal justice administration would be eroded. Where there has been negligence on the part of the investigating agency or omissions, etc. which resulted in defective investigation, there is a legal obligation on the part of the court to examine the prosecution evidence dehors such lapses, carefully, to find out whether the said evidence is reliable or not and to what extent it is reliable and as to whether such lapses affected the object of finding out the truth. A similar approach was adopted in Surajit Sarkar v. State of West Bengal 64 and Shanker & Ors. v. State of Madhya Pradesh 65. In Harijana Thirupala and Ors. v. Public Prosecutor, High Court of A.P., Hyderabad66 this court said that: “…The case of the prosecution must be judged as a whole having regard to the totality of the evidence. In appreciating the evidence, the approach of the court must be integrated not truncated or isolated. In other words, the impact of evidence in totality on the prosecution case or innocence of Accused has to be kept in mind in coming the conclusion as to the guilt or otherwise of the accused. In reaching a conclusion about the guilt of the accused, the court has to appreciate, analyse and assess the evidence placed before it by the yardstick of probabilities, its intrinsic value and the animus of witnesses.” 158. This court has further emphasized that if discrepancies in the depositions are minor, or that witness contradict themselves during their testimonies (as opposed to their previous police statements) what is important is the nature of contradictions. In Rammi @ Rameshwar v. State of Madhya Pradesh 67, this Court held that: 63 (2010) 9 SCC 567 64 (2013) 2 SCC 146 65 (2018) 15 SCC 725 66 (2002) 6 SCC 470 67 (1999 ) 8 SCC 649