NEW DELHI: Observing that courts cannot yield to public sentiment and external pressures and punish an accused merely on moral convictions or conjectures, the Supreme Court set aside on Wednesday the conviction of a man on death row for the rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl in Chennai in 2017. It said that the accused was made a scapegoat by the police. SC said the prosecution miserably failed to prove the case and the trial court as well as Madras HC glossed over patent infirmities and loopholes in the prosecution’s case and wrongly convicted the man. ‘Evidence of CCTV footage seems a fictional creation’ A bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sanjay Karol and Sandeep Mehta noted that the primary evidence of the so-called CCTV footage, in which the accused was allegedly captured, was not available on record and seems to be a fictional creation by the investigating officers to somehow trap the appellant.“It seems that the investigation officers were intentionally trying to screen the truth from being brought on record and washed their hands of the matter, by making the appellant, a scapegoat,” the judgment said.Though the bench said that the offence was very horrible as a seven-year-old girl was raped and smothered, it said that there was no credible evidence against the accused and the court was left with no option but to let him off.“We cannot ignore or bypass the fundamental principle of criminal jurisprudence that the prosecution is duty-bound to prove the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt. The onus is heavier in a case based purely on circumstantial evidence. However, regrettably, the prosecution has miserably failed to do so in the instant case…” the bench said.“While it is acknowledged that the acquittal of an individual involved in a heinous crime can lead to societal distress and cause grave anguish to the victim’s family, the legal framework does not permit the courts to punish an accused person based merely on moral convictions or conjectures,” it said.