Overview
- The bench, which delivered its order Tuesday, set aside trial and Gauhati High Court convictions in the Goalpara case.
- A two‑day delay in filing the First Information Report undermined the case, as a General Diary note is not a formal FIR in Indian law.
- The FIR came from a non‑eyewitness and the person who informed him was never examined, which the court said broke the chain of proof.
- Key lapses included not sending seized weapons for forensic tests, not confronting them with witnesses or the post‑mortem doctor, failing to collect blood samples, and not proving who owned seized motorcycles.
- The court found eyewitness accounts unreliable because injuries they claimed were not backed by medical records, and it urged Assam to better train and equip police investigators.