New Delhi, March 13 -- The Supreme Court has cautioned investigators and courts against building criminal cases on public perception or personal bias, warning that such an approach can derail justice by endangering innocent people while allowing the real perpetrator to escape. A bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and K Vinod Chandran said that overzealous investigations based on assumptions rather than evidence could be as damaging to the criminal justice process as lethargic or delayed probes. "Overzealous investigation is as fatal to prosecution as are the lethargic and the tardy. Framing a case on public perceptions and personal predilections ends up in a mess, often putting to peril an innocent and always letting free the perpetrator," the ...