Supreme Court: In Case Of Circumstantial Evidence, Chain Has To Be Complete In All Aspects To Exclude Other Theory Of Crime

The Supreme Court in the case Laxman Prasad @Laxman v. State of Madhya Pradesh observed and has set aside the conviction and the life sentence which is awarded by the Madhya Pradesh High Court in the year 2010 to the accused in the murder case, wherein the court reiterated that in a case of circumstantial evidence, the chain has to be complete in all respects so as to indicate the guilt of the accused and also exclude any other theory of the crime.
In the present case, the said court was hearing the appeal against the conviction which is based on the circumstantial evidence.
The bench comprising of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah in the case observed and has noted that the that the High Court agreed with the finding of motive and the last seen, but it held that the recovery of the weapon of assault and blood-stained clothes was invalid.
The court in the case observed that the High Court goes to the extent to say that the recovery which has been made does not indicate that the appellant has committed the offence. Still, it has been observed by the said court that looking to the entire gamut and other clinching evidence against the appellant of last seen and motive.
Therefore, it has been opined by the court that the said court did not find such a conclusion of the High Court to be strictly in accordance with law.
The court in the case also referred to the case Sharad Birdhichand Sarda vs. State of Maharashtra and Sailendra Rajdev Pasvan vs. State of Gujarat Etc, wherein it has been reiterated that in a case of circumstantial evidence, thus, the chain has to be complete in all respects so that it can indicate the guilt of the accused.
Further, the High Court also found one of the links to be missing and not proved in view of the settled law on the point, the conviction ought to have been interfered with.
Accordingly, the court allowed the appeal and has set aside the conviction and the sentence to the life imprisonment.