Supreme Court: Whether the court can rely on recovery of articles of Victim as per statement of accused U/S 27 of Evidence Act if relatives of victim have not testified that those articles were belonging to Victim?

 In the preceding paragraph, we have considered the law laid down by this Court on that issue. Let us now consider the circumstances in which the recovery was made from the locations as disclosed. It cannot be questioned that such recovery would be relevant since the Appellant-convict could have affected the recovery only if he had specific knowledge of the location. This, however, in our view, is not sufficient to take the recovery of the objects as a circumstance against the Appellant convict. This we say for the reason that the objects recovered also have to be verified and tested. Now, this was not done. His statement is said to have led to the recovery of - (i) a sickle, (ii) a jute bag, (iii) a green coloured lungi, (iv) a blue colour checked shirt, and (v) a red and yellow colour striped towel from his house. {Para 26} 

27. How any and/or all of these articles related to the alleged murder of two victims and rape of one of them is undemonstrated from the record. None of the relatives of either D1 or D2 have testified to any of these belongings being that of the victims.

 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

Criminal Appeal No. 1672 of 2019 

Decided On: 15.07.2025

Kattavellai Vs. State of Tamilnadu

Hon'ble Judges/Coram:

Vikram Nath, Sanjay Karol and Sandeep Mehta, JJ.

Author: Sanjay Karol, J.

Citation: 2025 INSC 845, MANU/SC/0917/2025.

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