NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court acquitted a death row convict on Thursday after he spent 12 years in prison, including eight years under the threat of execution, for the alleged murder of his wife, mother, and two-year-old daughter in Pune in 2012. The court found insufficient evidence to support his guilt and ordered his immediate release.
A bench comprising Justices B R Gavai, Prashant Kumar Mishra, and K V Viswanathan overturned the decisions of both the trial court and the Bombay High Court, which had sentenced him to death after finding him guilty in the triple murder case.
Upon reviewing the evidence, the bench determined it was inadequate for a conviction, stating that suspicion alone cannot establish guilt. “It is settled law that suspicion, however strong, cannot substitute for proof beyond reasonable doubt… An accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt,” the bench asserted.
The trial court and High Court relied heavily on a neighbor’s testimony, which the Supreme Court deemed contradictory. The circumstantial evidence presented was also insufficient to warrant a guilty verdict.
“It is essential for the prosecution to fully establish the circumstances from which a conclusion of guilt can be drawn. The court emphasized that the accused ‘must be’ proved guilty, not merely ‘may be’,” Justice Gavai explained in the judgment. He further clarified that the facts must align exclusively with the accused’s guilt and must not be interpretable under any other hypothesis. The circumstances must conclusively exclude all other possibilities except for the accused’s guilt.
