Uggallage Upul Priyantha Kumara Vs. The Hon. Attorney General – CA – HCC 189/2018-2022

In the case between The Honourable Attorney General, representing the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (Complainant-Respondent), and Uggallage Upul Priyantha Kumara (Accused-Appellant), the court addressed the sufficiency of circumstantial evidence in upholding a conviction and death sentence for murder. The court held that the conviction and sentence were unsafe and unsustainable, as the prosecution failed to exclude a reasonable hypothesis consistent with the innocence of the appellant, specifically not eliminating the reasonable possibility that another accused could have committed the crime. This reaffirmed the principle that where circumstantial evidence does not exclude the possibility that someone else could have perpetrated the crime, a conviction is unsafe. The decision