Bilaspur, January 14, 2026 : The High Court of Chhattisgarh at Bilaspur has acquitted two men who were earlier convicted for the alleged murder of a young woman whose body was found on a railway track in 2013, holding that the prosecution failed to prove even the nature of death beyond reasonable doubt.
A Division Bench comprising Justice Rajani Dubey and Justice Amitendra Kishore Prasad allowed the criminal appeals filed by Gajendra Verma and Kamal Kishore alias Bittu Verma, setting aside their 2015 conviction for murder and destruction of evidence under Sections 302/34 and 201/34 of the Indian Penal Code. The judgment was delivered on 14 January 2026.
The case arose from the death of Nandani Verma, whose mutilated body was discovered on the railway track near Tekari in July 2013. The prosecution alleged that she was strangulated by her husband Gajendra Verma and his associate Kamal Kishore, after which her body was placed on the track to make the death appear accidental. Both men were sentenced to life imprisonment by the trial court in Raipur.
Re-examining the evidence, the High Court found serious gaps and contradictions that went to the root of the prosecution case. A key issue identified by the Bench was the uncertainty surrounding the cause of death. While the postmortem report initially described the death as prima facie accidental, the doctor later stated during investigation that it could be homicidal. In court, however, the autopsy surgeon admitted that there was no clear medical basis recorded for treating the death as murder, leaving the court unconvinced about whether the death was homicidal, accidental, or suicidal.
The prosecution case was largely based on circumstantial evidence, including alleged extra-judicial confession, recovery of jewellery, and memoranda recorded under Section 27 of the Evidence Act. The Bench noted that the alleged confession made by Kamal Kishore to a third person was unreliable, as the witness turned hostile and claimed his signatures were taken by police on blank papers. The court reiterated that extra-judicial confessions are inherently weak evidence and cannot sustain a conviction without strong corroboration.
The recovery and identification of jewellery, said to belong to the deceased, also failed to inspire confidence. The description of the mangalsutra seized by the police did not match the description given by the deceased’s father. Several seizure witnesses and jewellers did not support the prosecution version, and the investigating officer admitted that no incriminating article was recovered at the instance of Gajendra Verma.
Applying settled principles on circumstantial evidence, the High Court held that the chain of circumstances was incomplete and inconsistent, and did not point unerringly towards the guilt of the accused. It also cautioned against misusing Section 106 of the Evidence Act to shift the burden of proof onto the accused when the prosecution itself had not established a prima facie case.
In its concluding remarks, the Bench emphasised that suspicion, however strong, cannot replace proof in a criminal trial. Since the prosecution failed to establish the nature of death and the involvement of the accused beyond reasonable doubt, both appellants were entitled to acquittal. As they were already on bail, the court directed them to furnish fresh bonds under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita to secure their presence in the event of any further proceedings before the Supreme Court.
Case Reference : CRA No. 362 of 2015 (Gajendra Verma s/o Shri Chaitram Verma, Rajnandgaon v. State of Chhattisgarh) and CRA No. 456 of 2015 (Kamal Kishore @ Bittu Verma s/o Shri Dev Kumar Verma, Raipur v. State of Chhattisgarh); Counsels: for the appellants, Mr. Shashi Bhushan Tiwari, Advocate in CRA No. 362/2015, and Mr. Manish Sharma with Ms. Anshu Ratre, Advocates in CRA No. 456/2015; for the respondent, Mr. Ashish Shukla, Additional Advocate General.
