Can a sniffer dog be an 'evidence' or not? Judges are divided on it. A local court awarded death penalty to a man for raping and later killing a 10-year-old girl in Karnataka nearly five years ago. Sniffer dog had tracked and identified the accused. Karnataka high court, however, acquitted him on grounds that sniffer dog's evidence is not sufficient to convict him. The matter has now come to the Supreme Court on appeal.
A few days after body of class IV student was recovered near to her house in Harihara Taluk in Davangere district on December 9, 2009, the Karnataka Police arrested Syed Khan (name changed) with the help of sniffer dog.
Moving before the apex court against the high court order, the police said "high court has failed to see that the sniffer dogs are related as extremely intelligent animals and their sensibility is very highly developed. The evidence of sniffer dog, which is specially trained for tracking is not only admissible but also will have to be relied upon as evidence of very high caliber."
Seeking reversal of acquittal order and also capital punishment for the man, the police said besides, there were medical evidence including that of injuries on his private parts to hold the culprit guilty of the crime.
The bench headed by Chief Justice RM Lodha granted leave on the appeal and agreed to examine the issue as to whether the sniffer dog tracking evidence is admissible in law or not.
According to prosecution, the girl went missing on December 9, 2009 night when she was returning from her maternal grandmother's house, a few houses away from her house after having dinner in a village in Harihara Taluk in Davangere district. When the girl's mother and other family members looked for her and also enquired with the accused, who was their neighbour and had helped them to call police and lodge a missing report.
Next day, the body of the girl was found from a nearby area an for a few days police was not able to arrest anyone and had to take the help of sniffer dog, which went to Khan's house identified him at his residence.
As per the police, the wife of accused was 8-9 month pregnant and the helpless and defence less girl had fallen prey to the accused trap. Khan was awarded death penalty by a trial court in 2010 but the high court had not confirmed the capital punishment and acquitted him in June 2013 saying, "from medical and dog tracking evidence, it cannot be concluded that the accused was responsible for the alleged crime."
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