The Supreme Court on Thursday said interpolation in the FIR, which is an important piece of document in a criminal case, particularly a murder case, would make it lose its evidentiary value.
"It is worth mentioning that FIR in a criminal case and particularly in a murder case is a vital and valuable piece of evidence especially for the purpose of appreciating the evidence adduced at the trial. It is for this reason that the infirmities, if any, in the FIR cast doubt on its authenticity. The FIR in such cases may also lose its evidentiary value," a bench of Justices V Ramasubramanian and Pankaj Mithal said.
The court acquitted Mohd Muslim in a case of murdering Altaf Hussain on August 4, 1995, at Roorkee in Uttarakhand.
The court granted the benefit of doubt to the accused and set aside the High Court's judgement of September 10, 2010, which had upheld the conviction and sentence of life imprisonment as per the trial court's order on April 25, 1998.
In the case, besides other infirmities, the bench noted ante timing of the FIR, as the accused contended it was lodged at 1.50 pm but it was made as 9.00 am.
"A bare perusal of the FIR clearly shows that there is some interpolation in the time of its lodging mentioned therein. It is evident from the naked eye that ‘1’ has been converted into ‘9’ and ‘5’ has been rounded off to make ‘0’ whereas ‘pm’ has been converted into ‘am’. In other words, 1.50 pm has been changed to 9.00 am," the bench said.
"This is abundantly clear from the FIR and there cannot be two opinions on that. The trial court is not correct in saying that there is no interpolation and that since ‘am’ has been used, it means that the FIR has been lodged in the morning. The Trial Court completely lost sight of the fact that not only the time has been changed but the word ‘pm’ has also been interpolated and converted into ‘am’," the bench said.
It also noted the son of the deceased Altaf Hussain, who was claimed to be just 20 steps away, has stated that the incident had occurred at 9.00 am and he reached the police station at 9.50 am and the police came and took away the dead body at 10.00 am.
"If he had reached the police station at 9.50 am, there is no possibility of the written FIR being submitted and registered at 9.00 am," the court pointed out, adding it is a case where the prosecution has miserably failed to prove that the accused had committed the offence beyond any reasonable doubt.