In Brief
Two criminal appeals challenged the High Court's acquittal of three accused persons who had been convicted of murder under Section 302 read with Section 149 IPC for killing a man during a violent altercation between two political groups at a Ganesh idol immersion procession. The Supreme Court upheld the acquittals, holding that the complainant's failure to immediately report the serious incident and his uncle's death to police, coupled with the absence of independent eyewitnesses to the actual assault, created reasonable doubt about the prosecution's case. The conviction could not be sustained.
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