Penal Code, 1860 – ss.302, 376, 397 – Evidence Act, 1872 – ss.27, 106 – Rape and Murder – Circumstantial Evidence – DNA evidence – Reliability – Prosecution case that victimsyoung man and girl went to a tourist place, where allegedly, the appellant first came to the prosecution witness and his partner asking to part with her jewellery and then, approached the victims, and on their refusal to part with money and gold led to their killings – Trial court convicted the appellant and sentenced him to death – Upheld by the High Court considering the evidence on record-last seen theory, arrest, confession and recovery, TI Parade, DNA Test and motive – Interference with: Held: None of the circumstances posited by the prosecution found to be conclusively proved against the appellant – Chain of circumstantial evidence in no way points to a singular hypothesis, that is the guilt of the accused, ruling out his innocence or involvement of none else in the crime – Circumstance of the arrival of the two victims at the scene of the crime was on their own – It cannot be understood how that is a circumstance that can be, ought to be and is proved as a circumstance against the appellant – Last seen theory is a weak piece of evidence and cannot be the sole basis of conviction – Arrest of the appellant itself is cast under serious doubt, since the circumstances leading to the same are missing from the record – There is an apparent lack of corroboration to any of the statements made by the appellant and as such, the confessions truly unreliable – Statement of the appellant led to the recovery of certain articles, how any and/or all of these articles related to the alleged murder of two victims and rape of one of them is undemonstrated from the record – Objects recovered were not verified and tested, as such not sufficient to take the recovery of the objects as a circumstance against the appellant – Despite the presence of DNA evidence, the evidence to be discarded since proper methods and procedures not followed in the collection, sealing, storage, and employment of the evidence in the course of the appellant’s conviction – DNA evidence collected rendered unusable – Furthermore, it is difficult to ascribe any motive on the part of the appellant – Entire process was that of faulty investigation, identity of the accused could not be sufficiently protected leading to its disclosure well before the T.I.P. was conducted; nine-day delay in conducting T.I.P entirely unexplained; lack of coordination between investigating agencies, partner of star witness not arrayed as a witness; requisite care regarding the sensitive evidence-DNA not taken in the slightest, large amount of unexplained delay, chain of custody could not be established, possibility of contamination could not be ruled out; postmortem of the deceased persons conducted at the spot of the crime without due regard to the possibility of contamination, effect of such examination being conducted in the open, none of the courts below have found this to be objectionable, and possibility of ruling out the involvement of third party in the crime – Thus, the conviction of the appellant is vacated – Evidence Act, 1872 – s.106. [Paras 14, 15, 17, 18, 21, 24, 26, 27, 35, 37, 39, 42, 43, 45] Directions by Supreme Court – DNA evidence – DNA evidence collected being rendered unusable – No uniformity or common procedure followed by investigating authorities – Directions issued by this Court for all cases where DNA evidence is involved to ensure proper collection of DNA samples, its packaging, documentation, transportation, preservation of DNA and maintenance of Chain of Custody Register – Registry to send a copy of the judgment to all High Courts and also the Directors General of the Police of all States to ensure necessary compliance. [Para 44]
Justice delivery system – Compensation – Clean acquittal of the accused after very long incarceration – Law Commission of India in its 277th report dealt with the said issue, however, the Report confined the understanding of ‘wrongful prosecution’ to include only malicious prosecution, and the prosecution initiated without good faith, it did not directly deal with the situation of long incarceration – In foreign jurisdictions-United States of America, compensation is award to the persons acquitted after a long period of incarceration on being held innocent – Right to compensation has been recognised by both Federal and State statutes – Legislature to consider the said aspect. [Para 46]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Nidhi Jain M.J. Ryan, “Compensation for Wrongful Convictions in the United States” in Compensation for Wrongful Convictions – a Comparative Perspective, Jasinski and Kremens (Eds.) 2023.. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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