Top court acquits rape-murder convict on death row since 2015

A disappearance and a murder

- Abraham Thomas

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday spared a death row convict from the gallows, declaring him innocent in a sensational 2014 case involving the rape and murder of a 23-year-old software professional in Mumbai, as it found "gaping holes" that show "there is something more than what meets the eye" in the police's story.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Bhushan R Gavai directed the accused Chandrabhan Sudam Sanap, on death row since 2015, to be released and set aside the consecutive verdicts of the trial court and the Bombay high court in December 2018 that held him guilty for the offence.

On a deep analysis of the evidence, the witnesses and the circumstantial evidence produced by the Maharashtra Police, the court said, "All these facts cumulatively constrain us to conclude that there are gaping holes in the prosecution story leading to the irresistible conclusion that there is something more than what meets the eye in this case."