In this case, held, conviction of all the eight accused persons based on evidence of the sole related eyewitness, held, justified, particularly when there is no vagueness in his testimony with respect to the role ascribed to each one of the accused. Further, A witness being a close relative is not a ground enough to reject his testimony. Mechanical rejection of an even “partisan” or “interested” witness may lead to failure of justice. The principle of “falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus” is not one of general application. (Para 17.4) [Followed Bhagwan Jagannath Markad v. State of Maharashtra (2016) 10 SCC 537].
Held, PW-1 is an interested witness, being the brother of the deceased; as also he being the solitary witness upon which reliance is placed by the learned Trial Court is put forward as a ground before us to question the verdicts. The position of law as held in Harbans Kaur Vs. State of Haryana [(2005) 9 SCC 195] is clear in stating that there is no proposition of law which doubts the statement of a close relative simply for that reason. There is a note of caution sounded in Bhaskarrao Vs. State of Maharashtra [(2018) 6 SCC 591] which is undoubtedly on point but we may also note the observation of this Court in Rajesh Yadav Vs. State of U.P. [2022 SCC OnLine 150] wherein it has been observed: “30. Once again, we reiterate with a word of caution, the trial court is the best court to decide on the aforesaid aspect as no mathematical calculation or straightjacket formula can be made on the assessment of a witness, as the journey towards the truth can be seen better through the eyes of the trial judge. In fact, this is the real objective behind the enactment itself which extends the maximum discretion to the court.” 26. The courts below, as we have already observed, have found no reason to disbelieve the testimony of PW-1. In fact, to the exact opposite it has relied on it. Keeping in view the holdings in Bhagwan Jagannath Markad (supra), State of Rajasthan Vs. Madan [(2019) 13 SCC 653] Para 46-47.
[Ravasaheb v. State of Karnataka, (2023) 5 SCC 391]