The Supreme Court has acquitted four men convicted of a 2001 murder in Odisha after finding that neither the eyewitness account nor the circumstantial case met the criminal standard of proof.
The High Court had already rejected the claimed identification because the assault occurred on a pitch-dark night, yet preserved the convictions by relying on surrounding circumstances. The Supreme Court found that those circumstances depended substantially on the same discredited witnesses. It also noted the absence of independent testimony, recoveries linking the appellants to the crime, and medical examination of the heavy stone allegedly used in the attack.
The decision reinforces that circumstantial evidence must form a complete and consistent chain excluding every reasonable hypothesis of innocence. Where key links remain unproved and two views are reasonably possible, the interpretation favouring the accused must prevail. The convictions and sentences were set aside, with the appellants receiving the benefit of doubt.
