Supreme Court Acquits Man in High-Profile Murder Case

The Supreme Court has acquitted Chandrabhan Sudam Sanap, previously convicted and sentenced to death for the alleged rape and murder of a 23-year-old software engineer from Andhra Pradesh. The court cited 'gaping holes' in the prosecution's case and deemed it unsafe to sustain his conviction based on available evidence.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday acquitted Chandrabhan Sudam Sanap, who had been on death row, citing significant deficiencies in the prosecution's case surrounding the alleged murder of a young software engineer from Andhra Pradesh. The top court's decision overturns a previous judgment by the Bombay High Court.

The case dates back to January 2014 when a 23-year-old woman, after returning from a Christmas break, was last seen alive at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Mumbai. Her body was found ten days later, leading to Sanap's arrest and subsequent conviction. However, the Supreme Court found the evidence insufficient and noted the presence of numerous inconsistencies.

Justices B R Gavai, Prashant Kumar Mishra, and K V Viswanathan concluded that factual gaps made it unsafe to uphold the conviction. The bench emphasized the prosecution's failure to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, resulting in Sanap's acquittal.

(With inputs from agencies.)