State vs . on 25 July, 2022
47. The FSL report Ex.PW25/B in the present case proves that the country
made pistol recovered at the instance of the accused had been used to fire the bullet
which caused the death of Mohd. Mumtaz. Recovery of the same has been proved
by PW-24 Inspector Braj Mohan, PW-16 HC Kailash Yadav and PW-17, Ct. Amit
Kumar. PW-1 Manish Sharma and PW-3 Mustafa have identified the accused
Rahul to be the person who fired upon PW-3 Mustafa but the bullet hit the
deceased Mohd. Mumtaz. The probative value of the evidence on record when put
into scales for a cumulative evaluation supports the inherent probability of the
version of the prosecution. Even if a doubt arises that the accused Rahul was
shown to PW-1 Manish Sharma, as held in the case of Ramjan Vs State (supra),
what is material is identification in the dock. TIP proceedings are not a cast iron
straight jacket legal proposition admitting of no exceptions. It is a safe rule of
prudence to look for corroboration of a sworn testimony of a witness in Court
regarding the identity of the person accused not previously known to the witness.
In the present case, the identification of the accused Rahul in the Court by PW-1
Manish Sharma and PW-3 Mustafa stands corroborated by the recovery of weapon
of offence Ex.P7 which has been proved by FSL report to have been the weapon
from which the bullet recovered from the head of the deceased had been fired/
discharged.