Supreme Court: In Case Of Circumstantial Evidence, Chain Has To Be Completed In All Aspects

The Supreme Court in the case Laxman Prasad @Laxman v. State of Madhya Pradesh observed and has set aside the conviction and life sentence which is being awarded to the accused in the murder case by the Madhya Pradesh High Court in the year 2010. The court reiterated that in the case of circumstantial evidence, the chain needs to be complete in all respects so as to indicate the guilt of the accused and also it needs to exclude any other theory of the crime.
In the present case, the court was hearing the appeal against the conviction which is based on circumstantial evidence.
The bench comprising of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah in the case observed and has noted that the High Court agreed with the finding of motive and the last seen, but the court 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 also 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.
Further, the court opined that the said court did not find any such a conclusion of the High Court to be strictly in accordance with law.
The court also referred to the case Sharad Birdhichand Sarda vs. State of Maharashtra and Sailendra Rajdev Pasvan vs. State of Gujarat Etc, wherein the Court reiterated that in a case of circumstantial evidence, the chain has to be complete in all respects in order to indicate the guilt of the accused.
It has also been found by the said High Court that one of the link is 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 sentence to life imprisonment.