Supreme Court Acquits Man in 2007 Murder, Citing Missing Links
SC acquits man convicted of child murder, citing missing links in circumstantial evidence and unreliable extra-judicial confession.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday acquitted a man who had spent over 16 years in prison for the alleged sexual assault and murder of a minor child, holding that the prosecution's case was riddled with "missing links" and lacked credible evidence.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and Sanjeev Sachdeva set aside the conviction and life sentence imposed by a trial court in 2010 and upheld by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2022. The court noted that the entire case rested on circumstantial evidence and the "last seen together" theory, with no direct evidence linking the accused to the crime.
The bench also questioned the credibility of the alleged extra-judicial confession made by the accused to a village sarpanch, pointing out that neither the accused nor the victim had any connection with the sarpanch. "Extra-judicial confession is a weak piece of evidence and per se without any independent and cogent corroborative circumstance or evidence cannot be made the sole basis for conviction," the court observed.
The case dates back to March 2007, when the victim went missing from Ambala and his body was found the next morning. The prosecution claimed the accused was last seen with the child and later confessed to the crime. However, the court found several inconsistencies, including the seizure of an open packet of namkeen from the spot, which the prosecution linked to the accused but failed to establish any connection.
The bench also noted that witnesses testified the accused was brought by police on March 12, two days before the alleged confession, casting further doubt on the prosecution's narrative. "There are several missing links in the chain of the prosecution case which, in our view, do not establish beyond reasonable doubt that the accused was the person who committed the offence," the court said.
Allowing the appeal, the bench set aside the lower court orders and reaffirmed its earlier direction to release the appellant forthwith, unless his detention was required in any other case.