When the Victim Turns Hostile — DNA Evidence Saves the Day A Case Analysis: Murugan vs. State | Madras High Court | June 2026
Some cases are heartbreaking not just because of the crime, but because of what happens after.
This is one of them.
A 40-year-old man committed sexual assault on a 13-year-old girl in January 2020. The victim became pregnant. The case was registered under POCSO Act — one of India’s strictest laws protecting children from sexual offences.
The trial court convicted him and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
He appealed.
And here’s where it gets uncomfortable — by the time the trial began, the victim girl, her mother, and her father had all turned hostile. They didn’t support the prosecution’s case. The victim even denied that her child was born at all.
So how was the conviction upheld?
DNA.
The child was born after the FIR was filed. The Child Welfare Committee stepped in, the court ordered blood samples from the accused, the victim, and the child — and the Forensic Science Laboratory report was crystal clear. The accused was the father of the child.
The defence tried to challenge this. They argued the chain of custody was broken, documents weren’t furnished properly, and the DNA report shouldn’t have been admitted. The Madras High Court examined every argument carefully — and rejected all of them. The accused had actually cross-examined the FSL expert using those very documents, which proved he had them all along.
The High Court, however, made one important modification. Since the victim turned hostile and repeated assault couldn’t be proven beyond doubt, the charge was altered from Section 5(l) to Section 5(j)(ii) of the POCSO Act.
The life sentence was reduced to rigorous imprisonment of not less than 20 years.
Justice, though delayed, was delivered — carried entirely on the strength of science.
Case: Crl. A(MD) No. 1034 of 2023 | Madurai Bench, Madras High Court | Decided: 05.06.2026