Delhi High Court Upholds Life Sentence Of Man Who Called Cops After Attacking Wife & Daughter With Hammer

The Delhi High Court has upheld the conviction and life sentence of a man for murdering his wife and teenage daughter, relying on his extra-judicial confession, PCR call and recovery of a blood-stained hammer used in the crime.A division bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja dismissed the appeal filed by Vimal Singh against his 2002 conviction under Section 302 IPC.According to the prosecution, on the intervening night of December 10-11, 2001, the Appellant made a call to the Police Control Room from a neighbour's telephone stating that he had attacked his wife and daughter.Police personnel then reached his house and found the Appellant's wife lying unconscious outside the house with severe head injuries, while his daughter was discovered injured inside the house. Both later succumbed to their injuries.The prosecution case rested entirely on circumstantial evidence, including the Appellant's extra-judicial confession before neighbours, the PCR call made by him, recovery of a blood-stained hammer at his instance and blood stains matching the victims' blood group on his pants.Before the High Court, the Appellant argued that the conviction was based on weak evidence, particularly the alleged extra-judicial confession to police which is inadmissible in evidence being hit by Section 25 of the Evidence Act. It was contended that the confession was made before a “chance witness” who was a stranger to the Appellant and therefore unreliable.Rejecting the submissions, the Court noted that the said witness was Appellant's neighbour (though they didn't know each other) and had reached the spot on hearing the commotion. “His presence at the spot is therefore natural…We find no reason to disbelieve the deposition of PW-4 regarding extra-judicial confession of the accused, there being no proof of any previous ill-will or enmity between the accused and PW4, thereby, ruling out any reason for false implication of the accused by PW-4,” the Court said.Reliance was placed on Subramanya v. State of Karnataka (2023) where the Supreme Court held that an extra-judicial confession, if voluntary and true and made in a fit state of mind, can be relied upon by the court.In the present case, the Court found corroboration in the PCR call records, witness testimony, recovery of murder weapon in the Appellant's house and forensic evidence.The Court also noted evidence of motive, in as much as the deceased wife's sister testified that just days before the incident, the Appellant had threatened that the victims would remain alive only for “2-4 days.”On the admissibility of the weapon recovery under Section 27 of the Evidence Act, the Court held that minor discrepancies regarding the precise description of the place where the hammer was concealed did not invalidate the recovery.Thus holding that the prosecution had established a “complete and unbroken chain of circumstances” pointing only towards the guilt of the Appellant, the Court affirmed the conviction.Appearance: Mr. Sumeet Verma, Senior Advocate with Mr. Mahender Pratap Singh and Mr. Prince Verma, Advocates for Appellant; Mr. Aman Usman, APP for State with Mr. Manvendra Yadav Advocate with Insp. Muneesh Kumar, PS-Ambedkar Nagar. Case title: Vimal Singh v. StateCase no.: CRL.A. 1000/2002 Click here to read order

Delhi High Court Upholds Life Sentence Of Man Who Called Cops After Attacking Wife & Daughter With Hammer

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Delhi High Court Upholds Life Sentence Of Man Who Called Cops After Attacking Wife & Daughter With Hammer

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