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2026 INSC 223 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION Criminal Appeal No………of 2026 [@Special Leave Petition (Crl.) No. 15378 of 2024]

Sanjay Kumar Sharma ...Appellant Versus State of Bihar & Ors.

...Respondents J U D G M E N T K. Vinod Chandran, J.

Leave granted.

2. Overzealous investigation is as fatal to prosecution as are the lethargic and the tardy. Framing a case on public perceptions and personal predilections ends up in a mess, often putting to peril an innocent and always letting free the perpetrator. Here, we have a case of gruesome death of a couple when their house was gutted in a fire, with the son and daughter-in-law accused of murder. The entire case is founded on motive; the ill-will the son harbored against the father for not having given him his due share in the ancestral Signature Not Verified property. The entire village was against the son and the Digitally signed by DEEPAK SINGH Date: 2026.03.11

16:04:11 IST Reason:

mishap ended in an investigation where truth was sacrificed at the altar of perceived vengeance, ably assisted by the Investigating Officer’s selective but careless pursuits, derailing the entire prosecution.

3. On the early hours of 23.11.2016, a shanty in which a lawyer and his wife were residing was gutted in a fire, killing the old man immediately and his wife after two days in a hospital at Patna. It was alleged that the younger son and daughter-in-law of the couple, due to previous enmity arising from land disputes, torched the hut with the intention to murder the parents. In defense, as is permissible, inconsistent stances were taken; of the neighbour, who was managing the properties of the deceased, and the elder son having colluded to murder the couple and an accidental fire, by reason of the cooking gas cylinder bursting. The Trial Court convicted the accused, while the High Court acquitted him. We are faced with the divergent findings of the Trial Court and the High Court; that of the High Court by its order of acquittal having fortified the presumption of innocence available to the accused.

4. Sri Smarhar Singh, Advocate-on-Record, appearing for the petitioner, the elder son of the deceased, argued that the High Court has completely lost sight of the evidence in the case and entered an acquittal totally ignoring the dying declarations. In addition to the recorded dying declarations as coming out from the First Information Statement (FIS) and that recorded by PW8, a Block Development Officer (BDO), PWs 1 to 3, 5 and 6 also spoke of the statement made by one of the deceased pinning the dastardly act of setting ablaze the hut and murdering the parents on the accused. There was sufficient evidence to prove the motive, which together with the dying declarations ought to have persuaded the High Court to affirm the conviction ordered by the Trial Court. The Doctor who carried out the post-mortem spoke only of 60% burns and confirmed the mental status of the deceased, who spoke about the cause of her death and that of her husband. A number of decisions are placed before us to put forth the contention that a dying declaration can be solely relied on to enter a conviction. In the present case, there was sufficient corroboration from the medical evidence, the motive proved and the testimony of witnesses who reached the crime spot immediately afterwards. The High Court ought to have ensured that the parricide was not left unavenged, when egregiously the accused were acquitted without a proper appreciation of the evidence.

5. Sri Amanullah, learned Counsel appearing for the State sought to uphold the conviction of the Trial Court and reverse the order of acquittal especially pointing out the dastardly crime. The testimonies of the witnesses, the dying declaration and the motive proved ought to have convinced the High Court about the culpability of the accused is the contention.

6. Sri Vipin Sanghi, learned Senior Counsel for the accused pointed out the lapses in the inve