Kodithuwakku Arachchilage Lakshman Weerasinghe alias Chandi vs Hon. Attorney General – HCC/0376/2019-2022

In the case between Kodithuwakku Arachchilage Lakshman Weerasinghe alias Chandi (Appellant/Accused) and the Hon. Attorney General, representing the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (Respondent/Complainant), the appellate court addressed whether the prosecution had established the accused’s guilt in a murder case reliant solely on circumstantial evidence. It was held that the circumstantial evidence presented by the prosecution excluded any reasonable hypotheses other than the accused’s guilt and that the trial judge had properly evaluated all aspects of the evidence, including the defense’s account and alleged contradictions. The court reaffirmed the principle that in cases based on circumstantial evidence, the chain of facts must lead only to the conclusion of guilt and not leav