In Brief
Three appellants were convicted of murder (IPC s. 302) and kidnapping (s. 364) based on circumstantial evidence for the deaths of two men found in water. The High Court upheld the trial court's conviction. The Supreme Court allowed the appeal, holding that the conviction rested improperly on the 'last seen together' theory without complete corroboration and a reliable chain of circumstantial evidence. The Court found that confessional statements made in police custody were inadmissible under s. 26 of the Evidence Act, and recovered objects lacked sufficient proof of connection to the crime or ownership. Without material evidence linking the appellants to the crime, they could not be convicted solely on the last seen evidence.
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