Palagedara Arachchilage Alias Makulukotunnage Bandula Sudathsiri Perera Vs Hon. Attorney General – CA CASE NO 157/2019-2022

In the case between the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (represented by the Hon. Attorney General) and Palagedara Arachchilage Alias Makulukotunnage Bandula Sudathsiri Perera, the court addressed whether a conviction for murder under Section 296 of the Penal Code could be sustained solely on circumstantial evidence. It was held that suspicion alone is insufficient where the prosecution’s circumstantial evidence fails to exclude other reasonable hypotheses of innocence, and key facts such as the time of death remain unestablished. The principle reaffirmed is that, for a conviction based exclusively on circumstantial evidence, the evidence must be not only consistent with the accused’s guilt but must entirely exclude every reasonable hypothesis of innocence. Reliance was placed on