Supreme Court: Purpose of Inquest Report is Limited to finding Apparent Cause of Death; Discrepancy with Post-Mortem Not Fatal

 On examination of the aforesaid pleas, insofar as the factual context is concerned, there is little doubt that there is not a minor but a major difference in recording the number of injuries suffered by the deceased in the inquest report and the post-mortem report. However, this will not be fatal in our view. We say so keeping in mind the purpose of an inquest report, which is not a substantive evidence. The objective is to find out whether a person who has died under suspicious circumstances, what may be the apparent cause of his death. In the present case the death was unnatural. There were wounds. There is no doubt that it is a homicide case. The expert is the doctor who carries out the post-mortem and has been medico legal expert. The two fire arm injuries have been clearly identified with the wounds at the entry and at the exit being identified. We have already discussed the proximity of the time period between the intimation and the police proceeding with it right up to the stage when the post-mortem commenced. We do not find any substance in this plea. {Para32}

 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

Criminal Appeal Nos. 1492 of 2021 and 1202-1203 of 2014 

Decided On: 31.01.2022

Pappu Tiwary Vs. State of Jharkhand

Hon'ble Judges/Coram:

Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M.M. Sundresh, JJ.

Author: Sanjay Kishan Kaul, J.

Citation: (2022) 8 S.C.R. 121, 2022 INSC 118,MANU/SC/0115/2022.

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