Team Blitz India
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has held that a person cannot be convicted for an offence merely on ground that he was seen at the crime spot, saying conviction cannot be done on ground of suspicion, no matter how strong it is.
A Bench of Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta held that conclusion of guilt has to be fully established to convict a person, saying it is a primary principle that accused ‘must be’ and not ‘may be’ proved guilty before a court can convict the accused.
“Suspicion, however strong it may be, cannot take place of proof. An accused cannot be convicted on ground of suspicion. He is presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,” it said. As per police, accused had hatched a conspiracy and killed the victim over some personal enmity due to business losses. Police alleged that accused assaulted the deceased with a chopper, and the latter succumbed to his injuries.
The Supreme Court held that sole circumstance of recovery of blood-stained weapon cannot form the basis of conviction unless the same was connected with the murder of the deceased by the accused.
