Meghalaya HC acquits man in 2015 Shillong murder case, says suspicion cannot replace proof

Shillong, June 30: The Meghalaya High Court has acquitted a man serving a life sentence in the 2015 murder of a woman in Shillong, holding that the prosecution failed to establish an unbroken chain of circumstances linking him to the crime.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Revati Mohite Dere and Justice W. Diengdoh set aside the conviction of Ashim Sinha, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Shillong sessions court in August 2023 for the murder of Soma Chettri.

Soma Chettri’s body was found in November 2015 inside a room occupied by Sinha near Jail Road behind Vishal Mega Mart in Shillong. The prosecution had relied entirely on circumstantial evidence, arguing that the victim was last seen with the accused and that he had absconded after the incident.

However, the High Court found major gaps in the prosecution’s case. It noted that there was no evidence that the deceased was living with the accused, no proof of any motive for the alleged murder, and no conclusive evidence that Sinha alone occupied the room where the body was found. The court also observed that another person had occasionally stayed in the room and that one of its doors had been found open, leaving open the possibility of someone else entering the premises.

The bench also rejected the prosecution’s theory that Sinha had absconded. Witnesses had testified that he was on leave because he was suffering from chicken pox, and the prosecution failed to produce any call detail records to show that he had switched off his mobile phone or deliberately disappeared.

Reiterating the legal principles governing cases based solely on circumstantial evidence, the court said every circumstance must be proved beyond reasonable doubt and must exclude every hypothesis other than the guilt of the accused. Since the prosecution failed to establish such a complete chain of evidence, the court held that the conviction could not be sustained.

Accordingly, the High Court quashed the conviction and sentence imposed by the trial court, acquitted Sinha of the murder charge and directed that he be released immediately if not wanted in any other case. The court also ordered the refund of any fine deposited by him.

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