PTI

New Delhi, Nov 19: When a father is being brutally hacked to death, it is not necessary that a son or any other eyewitness should muster courage to challenge the assailants, the Supreme Court has held.

According to the apex court, absence of any resistance from the son or other witnesses during such attacks cannot in any manner falsify the prosecution's case.

"It is very difficult to predict or express any opinion as to what could have been normal or natural conduct of a person in such a situation," a bench of Justices Altamas Kabir and B Sudershan Reddy observed.

Response of individuals in such situations may differ from person to person and testimonies of such purported eye witnesses cannot be rejected, the bench said.

The apex court passed the observation while upholding the life conviction of two persons charged with murder.

The appellants Mahmood and Khaliq along with three others shot dead one Ram Singh in the fields at Village Badipur in Uttar Pradesh on February 19, 1977 due to personal enmity.

A sessions court convicted the five accused to life imprisonment relying mainly on the statement of the deceased's son Jaikirat Singh, who being an eyewitness gave a graphic account of the murder to the investigating agency.

The Allahahad High Court rejected the appeal of the appellants and confirmed the life imprisonment.