How To Overcome A Hostile Witness?

Especially in a criminal case a witness turning hostile has become common due to extrenous considerations and how to turn around and punish the guilty who escapes the arm of law is the question and it has become a moot point and has been debated now and than even before after the post Godhra riots in Gujarat in which numerous accused persons have escaped from conviction and hence the SC has to intervene and order retrial in the Gujarat riot cases namely Best Bakery and Bilquis cases. I would like to offer some solutions to tread the path of justice and bring the offenders to book so they do not escape the clutches of law as otherwise. In civil cases and other cases of different nature the menace of hostile witness is not much and its repercussions are not as disastrous as in criminal cases especially cases of grave danger. Fundamentalists, militants. Extremists escape gallows because they exterminate the witnesses if they have the audacity to speak in the Court of law and hence they are afraid to witness much less to speak about the incidents that happen day to day especially in Kashmir. We have a Constitution in which criminals have a right to live and detention for anything possible and feasible .That is why the police in Punjab, Kashmir and North East extremists are eliminated by encounters whether fake or true. In Naxalite affected areas too the same policy is adopted . 1. When a witness has turned hostile he / she may be confronted with their statements under S 162 before the police and follow it up by proving what they said before the court with the aid of other witnesses so that the court may know the truth about the witness 2. Very rarely witnesses turning hostile are proceeded with in law for perjury and this must be resorted too often so that the witness may know the consequences and deter them from doing so in the future 3. As per Case laws , one eyed witness or circumstantial witness is enough to convict the accused and hence police should not necessarily increase the trail. 4. Independent witnesses must be picked up instead of the ones who are of some acquaintance with the accused. 5. As per decision of the SC medical reports need not vouchsafe what the witness deposes in the witness box. Punitive and deterrent actions are called for to root out the menace of hostility of witnesses that has come in common course these days. Criminal Consequences of witnesses turning hostile

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