Additional Sessions Judge Harsh Trivedi on Tuesday acquitted the 19 persons for want of evidence and by invoking the principle of “Corpus Delicti” as the bodies of the victims were not found. Corpus Delicti, a Latin phrase that translates to “body of the crime”, is considered an important concept in murder investigations.
Applying the concept in the present case, Judge Trivedi observed in his judgment that:
“There should be a body or at least a body of evidence for police to work with before charging someone with murder case. When someone goes missing and police don’t have a body or at least a body of evidence how police can further proceed or work with which don’t exist. It is general rule not to convict anybody unless Corpus Delicti can be established, that is until the dead body has been found. In instant case, when the forensic reports indicated that no DNA profiling results would be obtained from the completely charred bone pieces ‘ (alleged to have been of the missing persons) then automatically rule of Corpus Delicti was required to be considered,” the Court said.
Source: Barandbench
