India, May 19 -- A life convict who pushed his friend off a second-floor balcony in 2016 is set to walk out of jail after the Bombay High Court set aside his 2023 conviction for murder on May 7, observing that the recovery of articles in the case had become "extremely doubtful".

The defence told the court that the prosecution had "manipulated the evidence" as three liquor bottles that were part of the evidence in the "murder" trial were manufactured in 2021, while the alleged incident occurred five years prior to that.

Justices Sarang Kotwal and Sandesh Patil said that the prosecution had not produced the mobile phone that was allegedly seized at the behest of the accused, Janaradan Varma, and "had introduced three different bottles as ...