In Brief
A woman's body was found near railway tracks with cuts from a sharp weapon. The appellant allegedly confessed to three witnesses that he murdered his wife with a cutting tool (bhojali) at that location. Blood-stained clothes and the weapon were reportedly recovered. The trial court acquitted him, disbelieving the witnesses' contradictory testimony about the confession and the recovery without proper procedure. The High Court reversed this, relying on the same evidence to convict him to life imprisonment. The Supreme Court held that extra-judicial confessions are weak evidence requiring careful scrutiny and independent corroboration. Since the trial court observed the witnesses and found them unreliable—a finding not perverse—the appellate court could not interfere. The High Court erred in using improperly recovered evidence to corroborate the weak confession. The acquittal was restored.
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