SC ACQUITS PUNJAB MAN IN MURDER CASE OF TWO CHILDREN OF WOMAN HE LOVED

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday acquitted a man from Punjab, convicted for kidnap and murder of two minor children, and sentenced to 20-year of rigorous imprisonment. The top court said that when a conviction is based solely on circumstantial evidence, such evidence and the chain of circumstances must be conclusive enough to sustain a conviction.

A bench of justices UU Lalit and Vineet Saran said the conviction of a man, Ravinder Singh, alias Kaku, is based only upon circumstantial evidence and in order to sustain the conviction, it is imperative that the chain of circumstances is complete, cogent, and coherent.

“The circumstances from which an inference as to the guilt of the accused is drawn have to be proved beyond reasonable doubt and have to be shown to be closely connected with the principal fact sought to be inferred from those circumstances”, it said, while setting aside the high court verdict.

The bench said: “We hold that the circumstantial evidence against the present appellant i.e. A2 (Kaku) does not conclusively establish the guilt of Kaku in committing the murder of the deceased children.”