India, Jan. 16 -- The Supreme Court on Thursday said that direct evidence in the form of a credible and trustworthy dying declaration in the absence of strong proof of motive is not fatal to the prosecution case.

A bench of justices BV Nagarathna and R Mahadevan, which overturned the acquittal of Chaman Lal, accused of murdering his wife Saro Devi by pouring kerosene on her and putting her on fire, said that motive assumes significance, primarily in cases based on circumstantial evidence.

The top court upheld the trial court judgement which convicted him of murder charges and set aside the Himachal Pradesh High Court order acquitting him by doubting the dying declaration.

The high court had doubted the dying declaration on two grounds ...