State Of Maharashtra vs Sanjay S/O Digambarrao Rajhans on 25 October, 2004
15. As per the prosecution case SI Kartar Singh had obtained the signature of the deceased on the first dying declaration and the SDM claims to have taken the impression of the thumb of the foot of the deceased on the second dying declaration. However, PW-7 Dr. T.S. Vimal has claimed in his cross-examination that a person having 100% burns, which the deceased had, on different parts of his body, cannot put his signature. He also admitted that the thumb impression of the foot were also burnt and it was not possible to take even the thumb impression of the foot as well as of the hands. This statement of the doctor also casts doubt about the reliability and genuineness of the two dying declarations. Apart from this we are also of the view that considering the fact that the deceased despite having received 100% burns and being unfit to make any statement on the date of incident and even after recording of the first dying declaration on 01-04-1985 when the SDM came to the hospital he could not have been in a position to make very detailed statements as have been relied upon by the prosecution. Giving of detailed statements by the deceased also makes his dying declarations doubtful. Even Honble Supreme Court in two cases reported as (2005) 10 SCC 259 Mannulal Sahu and another v. State of M.P. and (2004) 14 SCC 314 State of Maharashtra v. Sanjay had observed that a person with almost 100% burn injuries could not be expected to give minute details in his statements and in those cases the dying declarations which were quite detailed were considered to be doubtful for this reason.