Supreme Court orders Rs 6 lakh compensation for six years' wrongful incarceration over a flawed murder probe

The Supreme Court directed the State of Uttar Pradesh to pay Rs 6,00,000 to a man who spent six years in custody as an undertrial before being acquitted of kidnapping and murder, after finding the police investigation and prosecution deeply flawed. The petitioner, arrested on the strength of CCTV footage and a co-accused's statement, had approached the Court for bail; the Court had earlier directed the trial court to complete the trial within three months. On examining the translated trial court judgment that followed, the bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K. Vinod Chandran found that none of the four circumstances relied on by the prosecution — an alleged extra-judicial confession, a co-accused's confession, a last-seen theory and electronic evidence — had been proved.

The CCTV footage and call records were not supported by the certificate required under Section 65B of the Evidence Act, 1872, and no statement on the recovery of material was recorded from the accused under Section 27 of that Act. The Court held that the State cannot shirk its duty to protect citizens who are presumed innocent until proven guilty, and that investigating and prosecuting agencies must serve justice for the accused as much as for the victim. It directed a copy of the order to the State's Director General of Police and Home Secretary, and ordered compensation for the wrongful incarceration, carrying 18% annual interest if unpaid within a month.