In Brief
On 24 June 1987, a man was shot and killed at night. The prosecution charged three police constables with murder, claiming they fired the fatal shots during a police patrol. The trial court acquitted them, finding the key eye-witness unreliable and noting the deceased died from a .12 bore gun (not recovered from the accused), not the rifles the accused carried. The High Court rejected the state's appeal application. The Supreme Court upheld the acquittal, holding that while eye-witness testimony was weak and circumstantial evidence incomplete, the accused deserved the benefit of doubt. The appeal was dismissed.
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