RAJESH @ KALA . vs STATE OF HARYANA — Crl.A. No. 19/2002

Summary: Criminal Appeal No. 19 of 2002 — Rajesh @ Kala v. State of Haryana Outcome: The Supreme Court allowed the criminal appeal and set aside the conviction orders of both the Sessions Court and High Court. The appellants Rajesh and Vijay were acquitted and ordered to be released forthwith (if not required in other cases). Key Reasoning: The Court found the High Court committed manifest error by relying solely on an extra-judicial confession allegedly made by three accused persons independently before witness Dilbagh Singh on 27 June 1992. The Court noted that three separate, identical confessions made simultaneously was highly implausible and contradicted credibility. Additionally, the prosecution's circumstantial evidence contained missing links in the chain of events—the circumstances did not pointedly establish guilt and failed to meet the legal standard requiring no reasonable doubt when circumstantial evidence is the basis for conviction. This case analysis is maintained by casestatus.in based on publicly available court records.