Not naming the accused in FIR is inconsequential to their conviction: SC

The Apex Court in the decision Fazar Ali v State of Assam, held that it would not be inconsistent if the accused who have not been named along with other accused persons in the FIR are chargesheeted and convicted. In an appeal to the Supreme Court the persons convicted contended that since the names of seven other accused were not in the FIR, they could not be chargesheeted. The Court dismissed the appeal, as the bench of Justice AK Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan held that the FIR clearly mentioned 12 people, and that the FIR unambiguously claimed that apart from the 5 people mentioned the other 7 were also accused. Upon cross examination of the informant the Court observed that he had mentioned the names of the 7 other accused to the writer of the FIR but the informant being an illiterate had only put his thumb impression on the FIR.

The bench opined that “Not naming other seven accused although, number of seven other accused were mentioned in the FIR is inconsequential and on this ground, there is no substance in the submission of the learned counsel for the appellants that since names of other accused”. The Supreme Court, therefore, dismissed the appeal of the eight accused following the conviction of all the 12 accused in this case by the trial court and the Gauhati High Court upholding the decision of the High Court.