The Supreme Court on Friday set aside the conviction and life sentence handed down to four persons in a 25-year-old murder case, saying the evidence on record leaves "substantial gaps" which create a reasonable doubt regarding their involvement in the alleged crime.
A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and Prasanna B Varale delivered its judgment on the appeals challenging a May 2009 verdict of the Orissa High Court which affirmed the conviction of six persons in the case.
The top court said the six convicted persons had filed appeals before it challenging the high court verdict.
It noted that during the pendency of appeals, two of them passed away and consequently, the appeal stood abated regarding them.
"Though the medical evidence clearly established that the deceased died a homicidal death, the question before us is whether the prosecution was successful in establishing the appellants' authorship of the crime and we find that the prosecution failed to establish its case...," the bench said.
It said the case rested primarily on the testimony of some alleged eyewitnesses.
The bench noted that testimonies of some of them gave rise to a significant inconsistency in the prosecution case.
It said that according to the testimonies of the witnesses, it was evident that the incident took place in a pitch-dark night.
The bench, which referred to two previous judgments of the top court, noted the categorical finding recorded by the high court that it was not possible for the prosecution witnesses to have witnessed the incident on a pitch-dark night or to identify the assailants merely on the basis of the sound of assault.
It said the testimony of the alleged eyewitnesses cannot be relied upon.
The bench said once the testimony of the alleged eyewitnesses was discarded, the prosecution case necessarily becomes one based solely on circumstantial evidence.
The top court said it is a settled position of law that to convict an accused on the basis of circumstantial evidence, each circumstance must be established beyond doubt and collectively point towards the guilt of the accused.
"Viewed cumulatively, the prosecution has failed to establish a complete and consistent chain of circumstances excluding every hypothesis other than the guilt of the appellants. The evidence on record leaves substantial gaps which create a reasonable doubt as to their involvement," it said.
The bench said in criminal jurisprudence, where two views are reasonably possible, the one favourable to the accused must prevail.
While allowing the appeals, the bench said the high court was not justified in affirming the conviction of the appellants.
It set aside the high court's verdict and also quashed the trial court's order which convicted and sentenced the appellants to life imprisonment in the case.
The high court had upheld the trial court's order convicting the six persons.
An FIR was lodged in May 2001 alleging that the accused persons had assaulted a man who succumbed to the injuries.
A chargesheet was filed against 18 persons. Out of the 18, the proceedings against one were abated due to his death and the case of three persons was split up as they were declared absconders.
The trial court convicted six persons, including for the alleged offence of murder. It had acquitted eight persons by granting them the benefit of doubt.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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