The mere presence of relatives of victim at the time of recording a dying declaration would not make the statement invalid, the Supreme Court has said while upholding the life imprisonment for a man and his mother for killing his wife for dowry.
A Bench of justices P Sathasivam and MY Eqbal said the mere presence of some of the close relatives at the time of making the statement would not affect the contents of the declaration and it can be relied on against the accused.
Dying declaration is normally recorded by a magistrate and relatives are not allowed to be present there as they might influence the victim in giving her statement.
The court upheld conviction and life imprisonment of a man and his mother for killing of his wife by putting her on fire. The Bench relied on dying declaration of victim who had said that her husband mother-in-law had set her on fire.
It rejected the contention of the accused that the dying declaration should not be relied on as it was recorded by the magistrate in the presence of her relatives in a hospital ward. “The claim that there was wrong description of names in the dying declaration and some of the relatives were present at the time of recording of dying declaration are not material contradictions which would affect the prosecution case,” the bench said while upholding the lower court and high court order for their conviction, the Bench said.