Cuttack: “A conviction can be based solely on a dying declaration if it inspires confidence,” the Orissa High Court observed while upholding a life sentence awarded to a man for the murder of his wife.
The incident occurred on November 14, 2011, under Bari Ramchandrapur police limits in Jajpur district, where the accused doused his wife with kerosene and set her on fire. She succumbed to the burns on December 9, 2011, in a government hospital in Cuttack. On January 6, 2014, the Jajpur trial court convicted the accused under IPC Sections 302 (murder), 498A (cruelty), 304B (dowry death), and Section 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, relying heavily on the victim’s dying declaration to a doctor.
The accused had filed a jail criminal appeal (JCRLA) against the judgment the same year.
On May 27, the HC bench of Justices S K Sahoo and Savitri Ratho acquitted the man of the charges under Sections 498-A/304-B of the IPC and Section 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, but upheld the murder conviction under Section 302.
The court found the dying declaration credible, voluntary, and made in a fit mental state, noting that a person near death is unlikely to lie. The declaration stated the accused, intoxicated, poured kerosene on her and set her ablaze, with her in-laws extinguishing the fire and rushing her to the hospital. Corroborated by the doctor’s testimony and medical certificate, unchallenged in cross-examination, the declaration was deemed reliable despite no witnesses to the act. “Hence, absence of motive in these circumstances will not be a ground to disbelieve the dying declaration, as it is otherwise reliable,” the bench added.