D. GOPALAKRISHNAN vs SADANAND NAIK — Crl.A. No. 1197 - 1203/1998

Case Summary: Crl.A. No. 001197-001203/1998 The Supreme Court dismissed the appellant's criminal appeals challenging the High Court's acquittal of seven accused persons in a 1987 MRF factory strike violence case. The Court upheld the High Court's finding that witness identification was unreliable, as the witnesses (who worked at the factory for only 25 days) had no prior acquaintance with the accused and could not have properly identified them while traveling to the factory. The Court also criticized the investigative procedure of showing photograph albums with names written underneath to witnesses without first recording their physical descriptions of the assailants or conducting formal identification parades, finding such practice unjustified under law and potentially leading to wrongful identifications. This case analysis is maintained by casestatus.in based on publicly available court records.