In Brief
A man was killed by gunshot and two persons were convicted of murder based on an alleged extra-judicial confession and a 'last seen' theory. The Supreme Court acquitted them, finding the confession to an ex-Sarpanch highly suspicious and credible only with reluctance, the witnesses interested and unreliable, and the chain of evidence incomplete. Critically, the prosecution failed to call a ballistic expert despite recovering the gun and cartridges. The Court held that in circumstantial evidence cases, all links in the chain must exclude innocent hypotheses, but here multiple suspicious omissions and interested witnesses meant reasonable doubt existed, entitling the accused to acquittal.
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