Mere Suspicion Cannot Form A Base For Holding Someone Responsible for a crime - SC

The man who was convicted of murdering his wife almost 22 years ago has been acquitted by the Supreme Court. The Court found that he was convicted on mere suspicion by the lower courts, without any proven link between him and the crime. The Division Bench of Justices BR Gavai and Sanjay Karol noted that the appellant was only convicted because he was last seen with his wife and that the circumstances linking him to the crime were not proven beyond a reasonable doubt. The Supreme Court stated that the lower courts seriously erred in passing the order of conviction based on the incorrect and incomplete appreciation of evidence.

The man was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife 35 years ago by the Jharkhand High Court. The prosecution alleged that he committed the murder and dumped her body in a well to cover up the evidence. However, in an appeal before the Supreme Court, the SC acquitted him after finding that the courts below convicted him solely based on his last seen with the deceased, and the circumstances linking him to the crime were not proven beyond a reasonable doubt. During the trial, ten witnesses were examined but the Investigating Officer was not.

The Court found that the prosecution had failed to prove the case against the accused. It noted that the Investigation Officer was not examined and there was no evidence to show that the accused caused the disappearance of evidence. The Court also found that none of the witnesses had stated anything against the accused in relation to the crime, and no case of ill-treatment of the deceased was ever registered against the accused. Thus, the Court allowed the appeal and set aside the orders of conviction passed by the trial court and the High Court.