Minor variations in prosecution's story irrelevant: SC

A bench of Justices A K Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar also held that test identification parade (TIP) is not mandatory though it may help the investigating agency in corroborating the circumstantial and other material evidence and nailing the accused.

A trial court had awarded death penalty to Panchanan Tarafdar alias Chotka, Uttam Das, Manoranjan Debnath alias Behari, Dipak Das alias Mou, Bishu Saha alias Chor Bishu, Satyajit Das alias Sadhu, Ganesh Das and Shyamal Ghosh but the Calcutta High Court had commuted it to life term after which they had come to the apex court in appeal.

According to the prosecution, Archideb Bhattacharjee was strangulated and his body cut into several pieces at Patulia Barabagan, Barrakpore-Dum Dum Highway on September 29, 2003, after he expressed his inability to pay them Rs 40,000 on their extortion call.

The convicts argued they were convicted despite several variations in the prosecution's claim including the witnesses' failure to identify Shyamal Ghosh, one of the convicts during TIP.

"Every variation may not be enough to adversely affect the case of the prosecution. Firstly, these witnesses are rickshaw pullers or illiterate or not highly educated persons whose statements had been recorded by the Police.

"Their statements in the Court were recorded after more than two years from the date of the incident. It will be unreasonable to attach motive to the witnesses or term the variations of 15-20 minutes in the timing of a particular event, as a material contradiction," Justice Swatanter Kumar said, writing the judgement for the bench.