Supreme Court acquits man on death row since 2015 for Mumbai techie rape-murder, cites 'gaping holes' in prosecution case

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday acquitted a man sentenced to death penalty in a case of rape and murder of 23-year-old software engineer from Andhra Pradesh in Mumbai in January 2014, saying the circumstances relied upon, when stitched together, do not lead to the sole hypothesis of the guilt of the accused.

A bench of Justices B R Gavai, Prashant Kumar Mishra and K V Vishwanathan said it would be extremely unsafe to sustain a conviction against the appellant as the prosecution had not established its case beyond reasonable doubt.

The court found that there were gaping holes in the prosecution's story leading to the irresistible conclusion that there is something more than what meets the eye in this case.

"While the old adage, witness may lie but not the circumstances, may be correct, however, the circumstances adduced, as held by this court, should be fully established," Justice Vishwanathan wrote in 113-page judgment for the bench.

Allowing the appeal by Chandrabhan Sudam Sanap, the bench on January 28, 2025 set aside the Bombay High Court's judgment of 2018 which had upheld the conviction and sentence of death penalty on the appellant.

The bench pointed out there is a legal distinction between ‘may be proved’ and ‘must be or should be proved’ as held by this court.

"We do not find that the chain is so complete as not to leave any reasonable ground for the conclusion consistent with the innocence of the accused," the bench said.

According to the prosecution, the 23-year-old software engineer from Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh returned to Mumbai on January 5, 2014, after a Christmas break and got off a train at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) in Mumbai where she was last seen alive.

On January 5, 2014, the victim reached the railway station in suburban Mumbai from her native place in Andhra Pradesh after spending some time with her family. It was alleged by the prosecution that at around 5 am, she met Sanap outside the station and he offered to drop her to the YWCA hostel in suburban Andheri, where she stayed, on his motorbike in return for Rs 300.

The appellant was arrested in the case on March 2, 2014.

The prosecution claimed the appellant picked up the victim from the railway station on a bike and raped and murdered her at a secluded place along the service road of Eastern Express Highway near Kanjur Marg.

In 2015, the trial court held Sanap guilty and sentenced him to death for the rape and murder of the woman, who was employed by a leading IT firm in Mumbai. In 2018, the High Court upheld the death sentence and said it did not see any possibility of reform.

After examining the evidences including the CCTV footages, the bench said, "we are constrained to come to the sole irresistible conclusion that the appellant is not guilty of the offences for which he has been charged," the bench said.

The court discarded the CCTV footage, statement of prosecution witnesses, and recovery of the victim's articles, finding the prosecution had not been able to explain the infirmities pointed out by the appellant's counsel.