NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court recently paved the way for the release of a man who was sentenced to death for killing his wife and four children over an alleged extramarital affair. “We find the evidence of the investigating officer not only unreliable but we can go to the extent to saying that the same does not constitute legal evidence.
The evidence in the form of extra-judicial confession is nothing but a fabricated piece of evidence at the instance of the investigating officer just with a view to bolstering up the case of the prosecution in the absence of any direct evidence,” a bench of CJI UU Lalit, Justices SR Bhat and JB Pardiwala said.
While acquitting the accused, Justice Pardiwala writing 93-page judgement on behalf of the bench said, “Thus, none of the pieces of evidence relied on as incriminating by the courts below, can be treated as incriminating pieces of circumstantial evidence against the accused.
Realities or truth apart, the fundamental and basic presumption in the administration of criminal law and justice delivery system is the innocence of the alleged accused and till the charges are proved beyond a reasonable doubt on the basis of clear, cogent, credible or unimpeachable evidence, the question of indicting or punishing an accused does not arise, merely carried away by heinous nature of the crime or the gruesome manner in which it was found to have been committed.
Though the offence is gruesome and revolts the human conscience an accused can be convicted only on legal evidence and if only a chain of circumstantial evidence has been so forged as to rule out the possibility of any other reasonable hypothesis excepting the guilt of the accused.”
The court’s order came in a plea filed by convict Ramanand against Allahabad HC’s July 9, 2021 ruling of affirming the death sentence awarded to the accused by the trial court in 2010. The death penalty was confirmed by the HC on the basis of extra-judicial confession that was made by the accused.