25/10/2012
Delhi High Court: The evidence of a child witness shouldn't be rejected outrightly by courts, the Delhi high court has cautioned, while awarding life sentence to a man for kidnapping and then ra**ng a minor girl three years ago. A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and S P Garg dismissed Shalimar Bagh resident Amrit Sharma alias Amit's appeal against his conviction and sentence of life imprisonment, awarded by the trial court on September 27, 2010 on basis of the testimonies of the victim and her friend. “The law on the issue is that the evidence of a child witness cannot be rejected outrightly. It must be evaluated more carefully and with greater circumspection because a child is susceptible to be swayed by others and can be tutored,” the bench noted, saying that “Small children can make false identification not because they want to depose and state false facts but because they may not be guided and be fully aware and conscious of the adverse consequence and the effect of making false positive identification.” HC accepted the statements of victim, a 4-year-old girl at the time of incident in April 2009, and also her friend, who is also of same age group, that the accused had offered them biscuit and Rs 10 to go with him. While the victim's friend declined the offer of the accused she saw the victim being taken away by him to a nearby forest. “In the absence of any contrary evidence, we cannot assume that testimonies of the victim and her friend should not be considered simply because they are child witnesses. There is nothing on record to show that both of them were not capable to reveal the incident and identify the accused,” the court concluded. (Amrit Sharma v. State, Crl.A.122/2011, decided on 18-10-2012)
