Supreme Court of India acquitted Ajay Verma on September 25, 2025, in Criminal Appeal No. 2357/2025, overturning his conviction and life sentence awarded by the Chhattisgarh High Court and the trial court. The court bench, consisting of Justices Dipankar Datta and Augustine George Masih, passed the judgment in Verma's favor on grounds of substantial doubts in the evidence presented by the prosecution.

Verma was held guilty under Sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, for having caused the death of a woman by burning her with kerosene. The case of the prosecution rested on a dying declaration made by an Executive Magistrate to the victim before she died on 20 August 2020. The Chhattisgarh High Court had upheld the trial court's verdict, leading to Verma's appeal in the Supreme Court.

   

The Supreme Court examined medical reports from D.K.S. Super Specialty Hospital, Raipur, where the victim had been admitted between August 17 and August 20, 2020. The preliminary examining physician (PW-6) testified that the victim had stated her burn injuries as accidental, incurred while cooking. This was corroborated by the Professor of the Burn Department (PW-12), with neither of the witnesses being termed hostile.

The bench found a significant contradiction between the dying declaration, which implicated Verma, and medical evidence supported by PW-6 and PW-12's depositions. This contradiction had created reasonable doubt regarding the prosecution's case, which the lower courts had failed to notice. The Supreme Court ruled that the High Court had been in error in confirming the conviction, citing the fact that Verma was due the benefit of doubt.

The Supreme Court reserved Verma's conviction and sentence, directing his immediate release from custody, subject to him being not required in any other case. All the pending applications were disposed of, finally disposing of the appeal.

This judgment points out the judiciary's strict methodology of assessing evidence, especially in cases based on dying declarations. Through upholding consistency and reliability first, the Supreme Court reconfirmed the maxim that convictions should be based on strong evidence, and thereby ensure justice to the accused.