DNA Report Cannot Be Relied Upon To Convict Accused If Not Put To Him During S.313 CrPC Examination: Uttarakhand High Court

The Uttarakhand High Court has held that an FSL/DNA report cannot be relied upon to sustain a conviction if the conclusions of the report were not put to the accused during his examination under Section 313 CrPC. The Court observed that incriminating material not presented to the accused for explanation cannot be read against him.

A Division Bench of Justices Ravindra Maithani and Siddhartha Sah was hearing a criminal appeal filed against the judgment of the Special Judge, POCSO, Dehradun, convicting the appellant under Sections 363, 377 and 506 IPC and Section 4(2) of the POCSO Act. The prosecution's case was that the victim, aged 13 years, was forcibly taken by the accused on a motorcycle on 15 August 2018 and subjected to unnatural sexual assault. The appellant contended that the prosecution failed to establish proper identification of the accused. The appellant also contended that the conclusions regarding DNA matching were never put to the accused during his examination under Section 313 CrPC.

The Court noted that the victim admitted that it was dark at the time of the incident and that he did not know the accused previously. It further noted that the victim's father stated that police had shown a photograph to the victim for identification and admitted that no test identification parade was conducted. The Court observed that the prosecution failed to satisfactorily explain how the accused was identified and named in the FIR.

The Court held that the prosecution failed to satisfactorily establish the identification of the accused. It observed that the explanation offered by the State that the victim had sufficient opportunity to identify the accused was unacceptable in the facts of the case.

On the FSL report, the Court observed that the prosecution failed to successfully prove the chain of custody of the underwear allegedly seized from the accused. It further held that since the accused was not confronted with the conclusions of the FSL report during examination under Section 313 CrPC, the report could not be relied upon against him. The Court therefore held that the FSL report could not form the basis for sustaining the conviction of the accused.

“… since the accused-appellant was not confronted with the conclusions of the FSL report, the FSL report could not be relied against the accused,” the Court observed.

Holding that the prosecution failed to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt, the Court set aside the conviction and acquitted the appellant of all charges.

Accordingly, the appeal was allowed, and the appellant was directed to be released forthwith, if not required in any other case.

Case Title: Mohit Tyagi v. State of Uttarakhand [Criminal Appeal No. 294 of 2020]

Click Here To Read/Download Order