In Brief
Abhishek Sharma was convicted of murdering his colleague Mandeep Kaur under Section 302 IPC based on dying declarations. The Supreme Court set aside the conviction. Although the deceased made four dying declarations implicating the accused, the Court found them unreliable: the first was hearsay-removed; the second contained suspicious insertions; the third was recorded without medical documentation of fitness; and the fourth came from an interested witness lacking corroboration. Critically, no other evidence established guilt—no motive, no possession of the weapon, no last-seen-together corroboration. The Court held that dying declarations alone cannot sustain conviction without material independent evidence, especially when gaps in the investigation cast doubt on the prosecution case.
The lawyer headnote and full judgment text are available to registered users.