Testimony of injured victim should be believed: HC

New Delhi: The testimony of a victim, who has been injured during commission of an offence, is accorded special status and "must be given due weight age" as it proves his presence at the crime scene, the Delhi High Court has said.

"The testimony of a stamped witness has its own relevance and efficacy. The fact that the witness had sustained injuries at the time and place of occurrence, lends support to his testimony that he was present during the occurrence. The testimony of the injured witness is accorded a special status in law. "This is a consequence of the fact that the injury to the witness is an in-built guarantee of his presence at the scene of crime and because the witness will not want to let the actual assailant to go unpunished merely to falsely involve a third party for the commission of the offence," Justice S P Garg said in a recent judgement. Citing apex court rulings, the court said the evidence of an injured witness "must be given due weight age". The observation by the court came while it rejected the appeals of two convicts, Sarfu and Ramraj, who were earlier awarded five years jail term, besides a fine of Rs 2,000 each, by a lower court for assaulting and robbing Rs 86,000 from one Ravinder Chaudhary on the evening of August 01, 1998 at Okhla Industrial Area here. Dismissing the appeals against the conviction, the court said that there was "overwhelming evidence" against the convicts as the victim had testified against them. It also asked the convicts to surrender before the trial judge on May 3 for serving the remaining sentence. PTI