Lucknow: The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High has held that merely because a written complaint was prepared with the assistance of a lawyer it cannot be considered false. With this observation, the court upheld a convict’s conviction, though reduced his sentence from lifer to 14 years in an acid attack death case in which two women had lost their lives .
A bench of Justice Rajesh Singh Chauhan and Justice AK Chaudhary passed the verdict on the appeal of Jagdamba Harijan of Pratapgarh. The sessions court had sentenced the appellant to life imprisonment for culpable homicide by acid attack on two women.The appellant’s primary argument was that the FIR was filed two days later and was prepared with the assistance of a private lawyer, making the report untrue. However, the court rejected this argument and clarified that the preparation of an FIR with the assistance of a lawyer does not automatically affect its credibility.The court stated while legal assistance is permissible in criminal proceeding, seeking assistance at the time of filing an FIR is also normal and should not cast doubt on the veracity of any facts. “The evidence on record demonstrates that witness statements, medical and forensic reports supported the prosecution case,” the bench said . However, the court reduced the sentence from life imprisonment to 14 years imprisonment.
