Supreme Court:Dock identification without prior TIP is weak/unreliable, especially when the accused were strangers and the witness had not earlier described their identifying features

 Demistalkumar(PW-12) was also made to identify the Accused persons in the dock, but that is another story which we shall consider at a later stage. The witness identified the Accused Appellants as the offenders. However, we find that the lame attempt by PW-12 to make dock identification of the Accused in his deposition recorded after nearly two and a half years of the incident is absolutely flimsy and unacceptable. The witness had not given out either the names or the description of the features of the Accused in his police statement and thus, if at all, the prosecution was desirous of getting the Accused identified at the hands of this witness, then he should have been made to identify the Accused persons in a Test Identification Parade during the investigation. Thus, the identification of the Accused by Demistalkumar(PW-12) for the first time in the dock is totally unbelievable and unacceptable.

{Para 23}

 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

Criminal Appeal Nos. 2828-2829 of 2023 and 112 of 2024

Decided On: 08.08.2024

Allarakha Habib Memon and Ors. Vs. State of Gujarat

Hon'ble Judges/Coram:

B.R. Gavai and Sandeep Mehta, JJ.

Author: Sandeep Mehta, J.

Citation:  MANU/SC/0856/2024.

Read full judgment here: Click here.

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