PTI
 
New Delhi, Oct 16: An FIR should not be too sketchy to make investigation impossible, the Supreme Court has held.

"Lodging of an FIR is necessary for setting the criminal law in motion. It, however, should not be too sketchy so as to make initiation of investigation on the basis thereof impossible," a Bench comprising Justices S B Sinha and Harjit Singh Bedi said.

"Mere information with regard to commission of an offence may not for all intent and purpose satisfy the requirement of the FIR," it said.

The Court's observation came while setting aside the conviction of three persons in a murder case that took place in Kolhapur District of Maharastra in 1993.

In this case, two persons were killed on October 21, 1993 in presence of two alleged eyewitnesses, who passed on the information to the deceased family.

The brother of the deceased then went to police station but he did not mention the names of the accused.

The details of incidents were narrated to the police on the spot by another witness on the basis of the account of alleged eyewitness and names of the accused were mentioned.

However, the court observed, "the alleged eyewitness had disclosed all the details about the incident to all whom they had met. Why they did not lodge the FIR has not been disclosed."

"If the said prosecution witness who claimed himself to be the eye-witness was the person who could lodge an FIR, there was absolutely no reason why he himself did not become the first informant," the Bench said rejecting the statements of the alleged eyewitness who did not approach the police after the incident.