In Brief
A seven-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted and murdered. The Supreme Court examined the prosecution's case based on CCTV footage, last-seen testimony, confessional statements, and DNA evidence. The Court found critical defects: CCTV footage was never collected or verified; confessional statements were recorded illegally and fully narrated by police in violation of law; other child witnesses were not questioned; forensic samples were mishandled with no proper chain of custody and blood samples collected four months after arrest; undergarment recovery was unproven. The trial also denied fair trial—accused was unrepresented at charge-framing, legal aid counsel appointed only days before evidence commenced. The Court held that circumstantial evidence must form an unbroken chain excluding all hypotheses of innocence, and convictions cannot rest on conjecture even in heinous crimes. The appellant was acquitted.
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