News Citation : 2026 LN (HC) 25
Bilaspur | January 8, 2026 : The High Court of Chhattisgarh has set aside the life sentence awarded to Sankra Yadav in a 2016 burn death case, holding that the prosecution failed to prove the charge of murder beyond reasonable doubt. Allowing Criminal Appeal No. 153 of 2020, a Division Bench of Justice Sanjay K. Agrawal and Justice Sanjay Kumar Jaiswal acquitted the appellant by extending the benefit of doubt and ordered that he need not surrender as he was already on bail.
The appeal arose from a 2017 judgment of the Sessions Court at Raigarh, which had convicted the appellant under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The prosecution case alleged that on July 17, 2016, the appellant poured kerosene on his wife and set her ablaze following a dispute over money, leading to her death a week later due to complications from burn injuries.
While the High Court agreed with the trial court that the death was homicidal in nature, based on the postmortem report attributing the cause of death to septic shock and septicemia from infected burn wounds, it differed sharply on the question of who caused the fatal injuries. The Bench focused on two conflicting dying declarations attributed to the deceased.
The first dying declaration was recorded on July 18, 2016, by an Executive Magistrate at the hospital after a medical certification that the victim was mentally fit to make a statement. In that declaration, the woman stated that she suffered burn injuries accidentally while preparing tea and did not blame her husband. A later oral dying declaration, allegedly made on July 24, 2016, shortly before her death, to close relatives named the appellant as the perpetrator.
Relying on settled Supreme Court jurisprudence, the High Court held that a dying declaration recorded by a competent Magistrate, in a medically certified fit condition, carries greater evidentiary value than a subsequent oral declaration made to relatives. The Bench found no material on record to justify discarding the first declaration or to support the trial court’s inference that it was made under pressure or undue influence.
The judges noted that the prosecution failed to explain why the alleged oral dying declaration, if true, was not promptly reported to the authorities. In the absence of reliable corroboration, and given the clear inconsistency between the two versions, the Court concluded that the conviction could not be sustained.
Accordingly, the conviction and sentence under Section 302 IPC were quashed. The appellant was acquitted, with his bail bonds directed to remain in force for six months as required under Section 437A of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Case Details: Criminal Appeal No. 153 of 2020, Sankra Yadav s/o Ganesh Yadav vs State of Chhattisgarh (Raigarh); Counsel: For the Appellant, Mr. MPS Bhatia, Advocate; for the Respondent-State, Mr. Pankaj Singh, Panel Lawyer.
