Sooriyakumar Ajanthan alias Ajanthan vs Attorney General – CA HCC 03-04/2016-2024

In the case between the Attorney General and the 1st and 3rd appellants, the court addressed whether the circumstantial evidence presented was sufficient to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the appellants, together with the absconding 2nd accused, shared a common murderous intention and were responsible for murder and robbery. It was held that the prosecution failed to prove the requisite common intention and murderous responsibility due to insufficiency of evidence. The principle reaffirmed requires that, in criminal trials, the presumption of innocence must be preserved and that any conviction must be based on clear, inescapable inferences drawn from the evidence. Reliance was placed on established legal authority concerning common intention and the evaluation of circumstantial e