‘Dying Declaration’:
A special CBI court on July 16 convicted two policemen and awarded them life sentences for the custodial death of a murder accused, who was burnt alive inside a police station in Karnal.
- The judgment relied heavily on the ‘dying declaration’ made by the victim prior to his death.
- The law presumes that no person will meet their maker with a lie in their mouth. So Section 32 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 deals with cases in which statement of relevant fact is made by a person who is dead or cannot be found.
- The general rule under Section 60 of the Act is that all oral evidence must be direct — he heard it, saw it or perceived it.
- The grounds of admission under a dying declaration have been based on two broad rules —
- one, the victim being generally the only principal eye-witness to the crime; and
- two, the sense of impending death, which creates a sanction equal to the obligation of an oath.
