In Brief
A seven-year-old boy, Haseen, went missing on 8 October 1999 and was found dead two days later in a sugarcane field. Three appellants—two brothers and their sister—were convicted of murder, kidnapping, and disposal of the body based primarily on witness testimony that the deceased was last seen in their company. The Supreme Court set aside the conviction, holding that the prosecution's case rested entirely on the 'last seen' theory, which is insufficient for conviction in circumstantial evidence cases when unsupported by other corroborating evidence. The Court found serious inconsistencies in witness testimonies, a 42-day delay in lodging the FIR, and unnatural conduct by witnesses. Without additional evidence linking the accused to the crime, the Court held that conviction could not be sustained.
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