Supreme Court Acquits Man After 22 Years in Wife’s Murder Case, Says Suspicion Isn’t Enough to Prove Guilt
The Supreme Court has acquitted a man who was convicted of murdering his wife 22 years ago, stating that mere suspicion cannot be treated as proof of guilt.
The judgment came while hearing an appeal against a 2004 order by the Jharkhand High Court, which upheld the trial court’s conviction and life sentence of the accused.
A Division Bench of Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice Sanjay Karol observed that the conviction was based only on the fact that the accused was last seen with his wife before her death. The court emphasized that the prosecution failed to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt.
“The circumstances connecting the accused to the crime were never clearly established. Suspicion, no matter how serious, cannot replace solid evidence,” the bench stated.
The case dates back to August 1988, when the accused’s wife was found dead in a village well. The prosecution claimed that the husband murdered her and threw her body into the well to destroy evidence. It was also alleged that the accused misled the police by falsely claiming that his wife was missing.
However, the Supreme Court noted that none of the witnesses had given statements directly implicating the accused. No previous records or complaints of mistreatment were found against him either.
The court added that the trial and High Courts had wrongly presumed the man’s guilt based on assumptions. One such assumption was the “last seen together” theory, which, the court explained, cannot be used as the sole ground for conviction.
Moreover, the father of the deceased had stated that it was actually the accused’s father who had informed him about the missing woman—well before the body was found—further weakening the prosecution’s story.
“There is no discovery of any fact that connects the accused to the crime scene or the act itself,” the Supreme Court concluded.
Based on the lack of evidence and inconsistencies in the prosecution’s case, the Court set aside the conviction and acquitted the man after more than two decades of legal battle.
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