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Mohd. Rijwan vs. State of Haryana

Criminal Appeal · 2023 INSC 911Decided 13 Oct 2023
Criminal Appeal No. 2350 of 2011

Background

The appellant was convicted of murder and destroying evidence after the accused was alleged to have killed a man named Vidya Sagar, with whom he had been drinking, and buried the body. There was no direct eyewitness to the killing; the prosecution's case rested entirely on circumstantial evidence: mainly that the appellant and the deceased were "last seen together," and that the body was later recovered based on the appellant's disclosure. The Trial Court convicted him and sentenced him to life imprisonment, and the High Court upheld the conviction.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court closely scrutinised the "last seen together" evidence and found it unreliable: the key witness did not know the appellant beforehand and identified him only after being shown the appellant privately at a police office (not through a proper test identification parade), which the Court called "a procedure not known to law." Another witness's account also cast doubt on the time of the alleged incident, and an important corroborating witness (who had reportedly witnessed the last-seen-together event) was never even examined by the prosecution, without explanation. Because the "last seen together" link, the first and crucial circumstance in the chain, was not proven beyond reasonable doubt, the entire circumstantial case collapsed. The Court set aside the conviction and acquitted the appellant.

Lesson Learnt

A conviction based on circumstantial evidence requires every link in the chain to be proven beyond reasonable doubt; identification of an accused that is not done through a proper test identification parade, and instead through informally showing a witness the suspect at a police station, is treated with serious suspicion by courts.

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

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