Supreme Court: Murder convictions upheld, spousal testimony deemed reliable
The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal and affirmed the murder convictions, holding the spouses’ eyewitness accounts reliable despite gaps in the inquest report and medical timing evidence.
The Supreme Court, comprising Justice K.V. Viswanathan and Justice Arun Palli, dismissed the appeal filed by the accused in Shekappa v. State of Karnataka and upheld the convictions for murder and related offences. The Court affirmed the trial court’s reversal of the earlier acquittal and ordered that the accused surrender or be taken into custody. The judgment was delivered on 3 November 2026.
The case arose from the axe‑murder of two men, Mallappa and Gulappa, whose spouses, identified as PW‑17 and PW‑18, witnessed the assault and later testified that seven accused had perpetrated the killings. The trial court had acquitted the accused, holding that omissions in the Section 174 inquest report and a medical opinion on the interval between the deaths created reasonable doubt. The High Court, however, convicted the accused on the basis of the spouses’ eyewitness accounts.
The Supreme Court held that the spouses’ testimonies were natural, reliable and sufficient to sustain conviction, emphasizing that direct ocular evidence outweighed speculative medical timing. It observed that a Section 174 inquest is limited to determining cause of death and need not name the assailants, and that the omission of names did not defeat the prosecution. Consequently, the convictions under Sections 143, 148, 302, 323, 341 read with 149 IPC were affirmed and the appellants were directed to surrender.
Read the judgment and its head note on DLJ: Shekappa vs State Of Karnataka (2026 INSC 1189).