'Circumstantial evidence not so conclusive' SC acquits man in murder case

New Delhi, May 21 (PTI) The Supreme Court has set aside an order of the Orissa High Court upholding a trial court’s order sentencing a man to life imprisonment in a 2016 murder case, saying the circumstantial evidence was not "so conclusive" to convict him.
     A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and Prashant Kumar Mishra was hearing an appeal against the April 2024 order of the high court.
     The petitioner, Padman Bibhar, was sentenced to life in jail after being convicted by a trial court for the murder of his wife’s cousin on April 4, 2016.
     "In the case at hand, the only evidence against the appellant is of last seen together. The evidence of motive does not satisfy us to be an adverse circumstance against the appellant in as much as if the appellant had any doubt about his wife’s chastity, he would have caused injury or harm to his wife rather than to his wife’s cousin, with whom he had no animosity," the bench said.
     It said the alleged weapon of the offence, the stone used to fracture the deceased’s skull, and the dead body had not been recovered at Bibhar’s instance, nor did he admit his guilt.
     "Even the chemical examination report is inconclusive, although human blood was found on the shirt and the stone, but the blood group was not matched," the bench said.
     It said that though the circumstantial evidence raised a doubt that Bibhar could have committed the murder, it was not "so conclusive" that he could be convicted solely based on the evidence of last seen together.
     "We set aside the impugned conviction and sentence imposed by the high court and the trial court and acquit the appellant for the charges under Sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the IPC," the bench said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)