No law that police cannot be cited as witnesses, says HC

The HC, however, reduced the sentence of 15 years rigorous imprisonment (RI) awarded to the appellants to 10 years.

The appeal against the conviction has been filed by Gurpawan Singh and Gurditta Singh, who have been convicted under NDPS Act by the district court of Ludhiana, and were sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment.

Challenging the order of conviction, the appellants argued that prosecution failed to prove its case against the appellants as the sole independent witness Pritpal Singh, who was present at the time of alleged recovery, was not examined, which is fatal to the prosecution case. The entire prosecution case hinges upon the testimonies of the official witnesses, which have discrepancies on material points that render the case of the prosecution doubtful.

The state counsel while opposing the appeal argued that prosecution has proved its case against the appellants-accused beyond any shadow of doubt by leading cogent evidence and they have been rightly convicted by the trial court.

Not convinced with the arguments of the appellant’s counsels, the division Bench of Justice Ritu Bahri and Justice Ashok Kumar Verma held, “The contention of the counsel for the appellants that non-examination of sole independent witness Pritpal Singh is fatal to the case of prosecution is misplaced and has no legs to stand. It is settled proposition of law that even if the prosecution has not examined an independent witness, though joined, the same is not fatal to the case of the prosecution.”

Further considering the age of the appellants and the fact that as per custody certificates appellants are first offenders and they are not involved in any other case, the Bench ordered that sentence of 15 years of imprisonment awarded to the appellants by the trial court is reduced to 10 years or RI for 10 years each.