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Shailendra Rajdev Pasvan & Ors v. State of Gujarat

Criminal Appeal · 2019 INSC 1363Decided 13 Dec 2019
Criminal Appeal Nos. 333-334 of 2017
Justice N.V. Ramana · Justice Sanjiv Khanna · Justice Krishna Murari

Background

A nine-year-old boy, Arjun, went missing in Surat in February 2001, and a decomposed body was later found nearby. The prosecution alleged the appellants had kidnapped the child at another person's instigation and murdered him, relying on a "last seen together" theory, an alleged extra-judicial confession by Accused No. 1, and circumstantial recovery evidence. The trial court acquitted all the accused, but the Gujarat High Court reversed the acquittal and convicted the appellants under Sections 302, 363, 364, 364-A, 365 and 120-B IPC along with Arms Act and Explosives Act offences, sentencing them to life imprisonment and other terms.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found the High Court's reliance on the "last seen" witnesses riddled with unexplained contradictions, and noted a long and unexplained time gap between when the accused was last seen with the child and the estimated time of death, undermining the last-seen theory. It also found the medical evidence contradictory and insufficient to confirm the recovered body was even that of the victim (no DNA test was conducted, and the estimated age/decomposition timeline did not match), and held the alleged extra-judicial confession unreliable and uncorroborated, citing settled law that extra-judicial confessions are inherently weak evidence requiring strong corroboration. Applying the rule that circumstantial-evidence convictions require an unbroken chain of circumstances pointing only to guilt, and that an appellate court must give due weight to a trial court's acquittal and the presumption of innocence, the Court held the prosecution had failed to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt, allowed the appeals, set aside the convictions, and restored the acquittal, directing the appellants' release.

Lesson Learnt

A conviction built entirely on circumstantial evidence, especially a "last seen together" theory and an extra-judicial confession, must form one complete, unbroken chain pointing only to guilt; gaps, contradictions, or an unexplained time lapse between the accused being last seen with the victim and the victim's death can be fatal to the prosecution's case, and an appellate court cannot lightly overturn a reasoned trial-court acquittal.

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

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