PLD 2003 SC 704
In such cases the circumstance of deceased having been last seen in company of accused is not by itself sufficient to sustain charge of murder, but further evidence is required to link him with the murder charge i.e. incriminating recoveries at accused's instance etc.
Last seen evidence for basing conviction thereon the circumstantial evidence must be incompatible with innocence of the accused and should be accepted with great caution and to be scrutinized minutely for reaching a conclusion that no plausible conclusion could be drawn therefrom excepting guilt of the accused.
Chain of facts be such that no reasonable inference could be drawn except that accused had committed offence after victim was last seen in his company.
Where the deceased was last seen in the company of the accused shortly before the time he was presumed to have met his death near the place of occurrence, inference could easily be drawn that the accused was responsible for the death of the deceased.
The evidence in the first instance be fully established and the circumstances so established should be consistent only with the hypothesis of the guilt of the accused, that is, the circumstances should be of such a nature as to reasonably exclude every hypothesis but the one proposed to be proved i.e. chain of evidence must be complete as not to leave any reasonable ground for a conclusion consistent with the innocence of the accused.
In such cases each circumstance relied upon by the prosecution must be established by cogent, succinct and reliable evidence.
All the facts so established should be consistent only kith the hypothesis of the guilt of the accused.
According to the standard of proof required to convict a person or circumstantial evidence, the circumstances relied upon in support of the conviction must be fully established and the chain of evidence furnished by those circumstances must be so complete as not to leave any reasonable ground for a conclusion consistent with the innocence of the accused. The circumstances from which the conclusion of the guilt is to be drawn have no only to be fully established but also that all the circumstances so establishes should be of a conclusive nature and consistent only with the hypothesis of the guilt of the accused and should not be capable of being explained by any other hypothesis, except the guilt of the accused and when all the circumstances cumulatively taken together should lead to the only irresistible conclusion that the accused alone is the perpetrator of the crime.
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