In Brief
Ram Niwas was convicted by the trial court and the High Court of murder and concealment of body of Dalip Singh under Sections 302 and 201 IPC. The Supreme Court acquitted him, holding that suspicion, however strong, cannot replace proof beyond reasonable doubt. The prosecution's case rested on extra-judicial confession and circumstantial evidence, but the court found critical gaps: the deceased's identity was not conclusively established (the postmortem report showed the face could not be recognized), and the eyewitnesses' conduct was unnatural (they delayed reporting and did not inform nearby police stations). The court concluded that the prosecution failed to establish an unbroken chain of evidence excluding all hypotheses except guilt.
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