In Brief
The State appealed the High Court's acquittal of the accused-Respondent in a murder case involving an unlawful assembly armed with deadly weapons. The trial court had convicted the accused based on eye-witness testimony. The High Court acquitted the accused because he was not named in the original FIR but only appeared in a subsequent witness statement, with no plausible explanation for the omission. The only other evidence—recovery of a clutch wire from a custodial confession—was insufficient, as clutch wire is commonly available and postmortem injuries suggested different weapons. The Supreme Court upheld the acquittal, holding that conviction requires independent corroborating evidence beyond improved eye-witness accounts, and dismissed the appeal.
The lawyer headnote and full judgment text are available to registered users.