The Supreme Court has acquitted a man convicted of murder in a 2016 case, ruling that the circumstantial evidence against him was not sufficiently conclusive to uphold his conviction.
A bench comprising Justices Sanjay Karol and Prashant Kumar Mishra set aside the April 2024 judgment of the Orissa High Court, which had upheld a trial court order sentencing the accused, Padman Bibhar, to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife’s cousin.
“The only evidence against the appellant is of last seen together. The evidence of motive does not satisfy us to be an adverse circumstance against the appellant,” the court said in its ruling. It further noted that if Bibhar harbored any suspicion regarding his wife’s chastity, the likely victim would have been his wife, not her cousin with whom he shared no animosity.
The bench observed several gaps in the prosecution’s case. Notably, the alleged murder weapon — a stone purportedly used to fracture the victim’s skull — and the body of the deceased were not recovered at Bibhar’s instance. Additionally, Bibhar made no admission of guilt during the investigation or trial.
Although human blood was found on Bibhar’s shirt and the suspected weapon, the court pointed out that the chemical examination report was inconclusive due to the absence of blood group matching. “Though the circumstantial evidence raised a doubt that Bibhar could have committed the murder, it was not so conclusive that he could be convicted solely based on the evidence of last seen together,” the court observed.
Accordingly, the apex court quashed the conviction and sentence imposed by both the trial court and the high court and acquitted Bibhar of all charges under Sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code.
