Granting relief to two men who had spent 14 years in jail, the Madhya Pradesh High Court has overturned their conviction in a murder case noting that the trial court had relied on an FSL report from another case while pronouncing the judgment in 2012. Calling the prosecution’s case riddled with “serious lapses”, the court noted that the FIR was written by an unidentified police official whose testimony was never recorded. Despite this, the report was exhibited, put to the accused during their examination under Section 313 CrPC, and relied upon by the trial court while recording the conviction. “We are really surprised as to how this negligence was caused by the learned trial Court,” the Bench observed. Holding that these defects struck at the root of the prosecution case, the Bench ruled, “Conviction and sentence of the appellants cannot be maintained due to the serious lapses in investigation and prosecution evidence.”