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Deo Prasad and Anr. v. The State of Uttar Pradesh

Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 707Decided 15 Jul 2026
Criminal Appeal No(s). 239 of 2013 (with connected Criminal Appeal Nos. 236, 237 and 238 of 2013)
Justice Vikram Nath · Justice Sandeep Mehta

Background

In 1977, several persons were alleged to have unlawfully assembled and murdered a victim, and were tried in Sessions Trial No. 242 of 1978. In 1981 the trial court convicted the accused under Sections 147/148 and 302 read with 149 IPC and sentenced them to life imprisonment, and the Allahabad High Court (Lucknow Bench) affirmed the conviction in 2011. By the time the matter reached the Supreme Court in four connected appeals, one accused (Ram Dhani) had died before the High Court decided the case, and two more (Raj Kishore and Deo Prasad) died while the Supreme Court appeals were pending, leaving three surviving accused-appellants: Hira Lal, Raj Bux, and Subedar.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court undertook a fresh, close scrutiny of the eyewitness testimony and physical evidence and found the prosecution case riddled with material infirmities: the presence of the alleged eyewitnesses at the scene was highly improbable given inconsistencies about the time and manner of the occurrence, and the supposed recovery of bicycles said to link the accused to the crime was unsupported by any cogent evidence establishing ownership or possession. The Court held that once genuine doubt arises about the eyewitnesses' presence and the truthfulness of the prosecution's version of events, the entire edifice of the prosecution case collapses, and it found that both the trial court and the High Court erred in overlooking these infirmities. Because the prosecution failed to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt, the Court did not find it necessary to separately examine a plea of juvenility raised by one of the accused, and set aside the conviction and sentence for the surviving appeals, acquitting all three surviving accused-appellants of the charges.

Lesson Learnt

A criminal conviction cannot stand on eyewitness testimony or "recovery" evidence riddled with unexplained inconsistencies and gaps in proof of ownership. Courts must set aside a conviction, however serious the charge, once reasonable doubt genuinely undermines the prosecution's core narrative.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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