The Supreme Court has overturned the conviction and life sentence handed down by the Meghalaya High Court to Bernard Lyngdoh Phawa and Boni Lyngdoh Phawa in the 2006 murder case of Biplab Das, a 21-year-old undergraduate student of mass communication at St. Anthony’s College, Shillong.
Biplab Das had gone missing on February 18, 2006. His body was recovered three days later from a grave at Mawlai-Mawroh, where it had been buried and later exhumed. The prosecution had alleged that Das was kidnapped and killed for ransom by his own friends, with one of the accused reportedly leading police to the burial site.
After examining the evidence, the trial court rejected the prosecution’s case and acquitted the accused on March 26, 2019. However, the Meghalaya High Court, in a judgment delivered on September 27, 2023, reversed the acquittal and convicted the two accused, sentencing them to life imprisonment on the basis of the available evidence and their alleged confessional statements.
Bernard Lyngdoh Phawa later challenged the High Court verdict before the Supreme Court. In its judgment dated January 27, 2026, a division bench comprising Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice K. Vinod Chandran held that a confession alone cannot form the basis of a conviction unless it is shown to be voluntary and supported by reliable corroborative evidence. Finding the prosecution case lacking on both counts, the apex court set aside the conviction and ordered the release of the accused.
The court also flagged serious procedural lapses in the manner in which the confessional statements were recorded. It noted that while the confession was said to have been recorded on March 8, 2006, the magistrate’s signature bore the date March 9, raising doubts about its authenticity. The bench further observed that the accused were not informed of their right to seek legal assistance at the time the statements were recorded.
The case had drawn significant public attention at the time, with parallels often drawn to other high-profile murder cases and widespread calls for justice. Biplab Das, the son of a tea garden worker from Assam, had become the focus of public sympathy.
The legal battle stretched over nearly two decades, with the trial court taking 13 years to pronounce its verdict, followed by another four years before the High Court ruling, before the matter was finally settled by the Supreme Court this month.