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Punjab and Haryana Acquits Two in Double Murder Case Over
The of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh has delivered a significant ruling in a nearly 20-year-old double murder case, setting aside the conviction of two individuals. The Division Bench, comprising Hon'ble Mr. Justice Rajesh Bhardwaj and Hon'ble Mr. Justice Deepak Manchanda, held that the prosecution failed to establish the necessary to sustain a .
Case Background
The case originated in , following the mysterious deaths of Prem Lata and her 11-year-old son, Vimal @ Poppy, in village Manana. The complainant alleged that he and his cousin had witnessed the accused leaving the premises where the victims were later found dead by strangulation. Following the registration of an FIR, the convicted four individuals in for offences under . During the subsequent appellate process, the primary accused passed away in judicial custody, and another appellant died, leaving only two surviving appellants.
The Failure of the Chain of Evidence
The appellants maintained their innocence, arguing that they were falsely implicated due to familial proximity to the deceased's husband. Legal counsel highlighted that the evidence presented rested solely on the "last seen" theory, which lacked corroborating testimony or physical evidence linking the appellants to the crime scene during the middle of the night.
The observed that there were significant unexplained delays in the filing of the FIR and material contradictions in the testimony of the prosecution’s witnesses. The Court emphasized that in cases resting on , the prosecution must strictly adhere to the "" of proof established by the .
Key Observations
The judgment meticulously cited settled legal principles, noting:
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"Certainly, it is a primary principle that the accused must be and not merely may be guilty before a court can convict and the mental distance between 'may be' and 'must be' is long and divides vague conjectures from sure conclusions."
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"The comes into play where the time gap between the point of time when the accused and deceased were seen last alive and when the deceased is found dead is so small that possibility of any person other than the accused being the author of crime becomes impossible."
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"In the absence of any other positive evidence to conclude that accused and deceased were last seen together, it would be hazardous to come to a conclusion of guilt in those cases."
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"As per the law settled, once the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubts, goes to the accused."
Court’s Decision and Implications
Concluding its analysis, the Bench held that the prosecution failed to prove its case against the remaining appellants beyond reasonable doubt. Consequently, the directed their , setting aside the original judgment of conviction and the subsequent sentence of . This ruling reaffirms the high threshold required for proving guilt in cases involving purely , serving as a critical reminder that the "last seen" theory cannot function as a standalone basis for conviction without a complete and unbreakable chain of evidence pointing exclusively to the accused.
