In Brief
A man disappeared from a village in 2011, and police suspected four villagers of murdering him following land and personal disputes. The trial court acquitted all accused for lack of sufficient evidence. The High Court reversed this in 2023, convicting four of them based largely on testimony from an eyewitness and confession statements. The Supreme Court allowed their appeals, finding the eyewitness unreliable, the chain of circumstantial evidence incomplete, and the confessions unsupported by corroboration. The Court restored the acquittals, reaffirming that suspicion cannot substitute for proof and that appellate courts must not disturb plausible acquittals merely because alternative views exist.
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