05/08/2024
Supreme Court sets aside order of Additional Sessions Judge Sopore and High Court of J & K in Ghulam Hassan Beigh Versus Mohd. Maqbool Magrey (2024) 1 SCC (Cri) 589
Discharge from offence of murder by considering POST MORTEM REPORT
"The trial court as well as the High Court got persuaded by the fact that the cause of death of the deceased as assigned in the post mortem report being the “cardio respiratory failure”, the same cannot be said to be having any nexus with the alleged assault that was laid on the deceased. Such approach of the trial court is not correct and cannot be countenanced in law. The post mortem report, by itself, does not constitute substantive evidence. Whether the “cardio respiratory failure” had any nexus with the incident in question would have to be determined on the basis of the oral evidence of the eye witnesses as well as the medical officer concerned i.e. the expert witness who may be examined by the Prosecution as one of its witnesses. To put it in other words, whether the cause of death has any nexus with the alleged assault on the deceased by the accused persons could have been determined only after the recording of oral evidence of the eye witnesses and the expert witness along with the other substantive evidence on record."
