A hostile witness is someone who, after supporting the prosecution earlier (for example, in their police statement), changes their story or refuses to support the case during trial. This is common in criminal cases and a big reason many prosecutions fail.
Witnesses turn hostile for several reasons: fear of retaliation, pressure from accused or local power centres, fatigue due to repeated adjournments, or even bribes. Sometimes, initial police statements were never accurately recorded in the first place, so in court they narrate a different story.
Legally, when the prosecution feels its own witness isn’t supporting them, it can ask the court to treat the witness as hostile. This allows the prosecutor to cross-examine their own witness with leading questions and confront them with earlier statements.
Courts don’t automatically discard everything a hostile witness says. They carefully see which parts of their testimony are consistent with other evidence and may rely on those portions. At the same time, frequent hostile witnesses highlight larger issues – poor witness protection, slow trials, and social pressure.
Strengthening criminal justice isn’t only about harsher laws; it’s also about ensuring that ordinary people can testify without fear and without wasting half their lives in court corridors.
