Viswanathan Kanaga Manoharan vs The Hon. Attorney General – CA HCC/78/2017-2022

In the case between The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (represented by the Hon. Attorney General) and Viswanathan Kanaga Manoharan, the court addressed the sufficiency of circumstantial evidence required for conviction on charges of theft and murder under Sections 383 and 296 of the Penal Code, respectively. It was determined that the prosecution failed to establish a conclusive chain of evidence linking the accused to the alleged crimes, particularly due to issues with identification, missing or untraceable physical evidence, and inconsistencies within witness testimonies. The principle reaffirmed is that criminal convictions must rest on direct or wholly reliable circumstantial evidence, with every essential link proven beyond reasonable doubt. This decision relied on authori