In Brief
On 17 April 2003, an auto-rickshaw driver named Rajendra Sahu was shot and fatally injured near a hospital in Rajasthan. The appellant was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment based on a dying declaration (parcha bayan), evidence from a constable who claimed to have travelled in the car from which the shot came, and recovery of a country-made pistol. The Supreme Court acquitted the appellant after finding that all eye witnesses turned hostile, the FIR did not name the accused, the recovered weapon was not in working condition according to ballistic examination, and the constable's testimony was delayed and unreliable. The Court held that the prosecution failed to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
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