The Supreme Court of India has acquitted Gambhir Singh, who was sentenced to death for the alleged 2012 murder of his brother, sister-in-law, and their four children, after finding that the prosecution’s case was riddled with irreparable inconsistencies.
A Bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sanjay Karol, and Sandeep Mehta set aside Singh’s conviction, observing that the prosecution failed to prove key incriminating factors such as motive, last-seen evidence, and recoveries.
“The fabric of the prosecution case is full of holes and holes which are impossible to mend,” the Court remarked in its judgment.
Singh was arrested in 2012 along with a woman named Gayatri and a minor, accused of killing his family members over a property dispute in Agra. While a trial court sentenced him to death in 2017 and the Allahabad High Court upheld the verdict in 2019, the Supreme Court found serious lapses in both investigation and trial proceedings.
The Bench criticized the prosecution and trial court, stating, “We further feel that the Public Prosecutor conducting the trial and so also the Presiding Officer of the trial Court were totally remiss while conducting the trial. The evidence of the material prosecution witness in a case involving gruesome murders of six persons including four innocent children was recorded in a most casual and lackadaisical manner, without adhering to the mandatory procedural requirements of the Evidence Act.”
It also noted that the investigating officer failed to establish a chain of custody for recovered evidence, making the forensic reports inconclusive. Even if the weapon recoveries were accepted, the FSL report did not confirm the blood grouping found on them, further weakening the case.
Ultimately, the Court concluded that “the impugned judgments do not stand to scrutiny and deserve to be set aside” and directed Singh’s immediate release from custody unless he was wanted in any other case.
Case: Gambhir Singh vs State of Uttar Pradesh – Available on LAWFYI.IO
