K.D. Nishantha Perera vs Attorney General – CN245/2009-2016

In the case between the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka / Attorney General and K.D. Nishantha Perera, the court addressed the issue of whether a conviction for murder, predominantly based on a dying declaration and circumstantial evidence, was legally sustainable. It was held that the conviction and sentence could not safely stand due to misapplication of legal principles regarding circumstantial evidence and corroboration, especially concerning the reliability of the dying declaration and the acceptance of corroborative evidence at trial. The principle reaffirmed was that all evidence in cases reliant on circumstantial proof must exclude any reasonable hypothesis of innocence, as established in Don Sunny v. Attorney General. The court relied on relevant provisions of the Eviden