In Brief
Two accused persons, Thammaraya and Basappa, were convicted of murder and destruction of evidence by the trial court and High Court based on circumstantial evidence. The Supreme Court set aside their convictions, holding that neither the disclosure statements under Section 27 of the Indian Evidence Act were properly proved nor the recoveries of allegedly looted articles were established through proper evidence. The court emphasized that in cases based on circumstantial evidence, the prosecution must establish a complete chain that is consistent only with guilt and excludes other hypotheses. Critical failings included absence of exact wording of disclosure statements in testimony, no proper panchnama exhibits, and crucially, no Test Identification Parade of recovered articles. The court acquitted both accused.
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