In Brief
Hansraj was convicted of murdering Ramlal under Section 302 IPC based on circumstantial evidence and sentenced to life imprisonment. The Supreme Court set aside the conviction and acquitted him on appeal. The Court found that the prosecution failed to establish a conclusive chain of circumstantial evidence. The motive (wage dispute) was trivial, the weapon recovery lacked forensic confirmation linking it to the victim, the identification of the person fleeing was not certain, and the last-seen theory was unsubstantiated by independent evidence. Applying the five golden principles for circumstantial evidence, the Court held the prosecution had not excluded reasonable doubt and therefore acquitted the appellant, who had already served over 10 years in jail."
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