{
 "record_id": "CW-2025-0021",
 "status": "current",
 "merged_id": "CWC-0584",
 "alias_merged_ids": [],
 "display_title": "Balaghat Man v. State of M.P.",
 "display_title_redacted": "Balaghat Man v. State of M.P.",
 "state": "Madhya Pradesh",
 "district": "Balaghat",
 "district_at_time": null,
 "city_town": null,
 "police_station_or_unit": "Balaghat Police (Special Judge POCSO, Waraseoni trial)",
 "court": "Madhya Pradesh High Court",
 "court_as_verified": "Madhya Pradesh High Court",
 "bench": "Jabalpur",
 "case_title": "Balaghat Man v. State of M.P.",
 "case_number": "Criminal Reference (Capital) No. 1 of 2024 with Crl.A. Nos. 2969/2024 and 3272/2024",
 "citation": "2025:MPHC-JBP:49936",
 "judges": [
  "Vivek Agarwal",
  "Avanindra Kumar Singh"
 ],
 "judgment_date": "2025-09-27",
 "date_precision": "day",
 "judgment_year": 2025,
 "incident_date": "2022-04-04",
 "incident_year": 2022,
 "category": "Other",
 "admin_category": "misconduct",
 "admin_subcategory": "false_implication_fabrication",
 "subcategory": "false_implication_fabrication",
 "subcategory_display": "false implication fabrication",
 "protest_override_heuristic": false,
 "outcome_type": "adverse_finding_compensation",
 "sections": [
  "IPC 363",
  "IPC 364",
  "IPC 302",
  "IPC 201",
  "POCSO Act s.5M/s.6"
 ],
 "officers": [
  {
   "name": null,
   "rank": null,
   "role": "named_only",
   "unit": "Balaghat — judgment names no IO",
   "publish_grade": "unnamed",
   "gate_reasons": [
    "ledger:no_row",
    "key2:no_row"
   ],
   "ledger_role": null,
   "key2": null,
   "key2_agy": null,
   "key2_claude": null,
   "key2_union": null,
   "key2_gemapi": null,
   "key2_openrouter": null,
   "key2_gpt56": null,
   "grok": null,
   "jev_risk": null,
   "jev_p_culpable": null,
   "key2_gpt": null,
   "later_outcome": null,
   "name_public": null,
   "display": "Police personnel, Balaghat — judgment names no IO"
  }
 ],
 "officer_count": 1,
 "victims": [
  {
   "age": null,
   "gender": "male",
   "name": null,
   "descriptor": "Balaghat man"
  }
 ],
 "victims_redacted": null,
 "anonymised": false,
 "victim_count": 1,
 "sentence_type": "compensation_only",
 "sentence_max_years": null,
 "compensation_inr": 100000,
 "force": "state_police",
 "primary_source_url": "https://mphc.gov.in/upload/jabalpur/MPHCJB/2024/CRRFC/1/CRRFC_1_2024_FinalOrder_27-09-2025_digi.pdf",
 "secondary_sources": [
  "https://indiankanoon.org/doc/48035861/",
  "https://www.bhaskarenglish.in/amp/local/mp/news/mp-crime-files-05-11-2025-hc-overturned-death-sentence-of-man-accused-of-killing-nieces-136339082.html",
  "https://www.bhaskarenglish.in/local/mp/news/madhyapradesh-hc-overturns-death-penalty-says-negligent-police-probe-wrongly-punished-innocent-investigating-officer-fined-1-lakh-135908803.html"
 ],
 "summary": "A Balaghat man spent about three and a half years on death row after the trial court sentenced him to death for one child's murder and life for the other's in the April 2022 deaths of two minor girls. The High Court set aside the conviction on all charges, holding the investigation motivated and malafide, citing an overwritten section 161 statement date and a last-seen statement recorded only after recoveries and arrest, which destroyed the circumstantial chain. It ordered his forthwith release and awarded Rs 1,00,000 litigation cost from the State, recoverable by the SP from the investigating officer. The court-site PDF was unreachable at verification (certificate error); the operative order is corroborated by the Indian Kanoon listing and two independent press reports. A reported Supreme Court stay on the officer-cost could not be verified. Matters not addressed in the cited judgment text are not recorded here.",
 "summary_verified": "A Balaghat man spent about three and a half years on death row after the trial court sentenced him to death for one child's murder and life for the other's in the April 2022 deaths of two minor girls. The High Court set aside the conviction on all charges, holding the investigation motivated and malafide, citing an overwritten section 161 statement date and a last-seen statement recorded only after recoveries and arrest, which destroyed the circumstantial chain. It ordered his forthwith release and awarded Rs 1,00,000 litigation cost from the State, recoverable by the SP from the investigating officer. The court-site PDF was unreachable at verification (certificate error); the operative order is corroborated by the Indian Kanoon listing and two independent press reports. A reported Supreme Court stay on the officer-cost could not be verified.",
 "court_quote": "It appears to be a motivated and malafide investigation, which cannot be given a seal of approval.",
 "court_quote_para": "55",
 "confidence": "medium",
 "verdict": "accept",
 "verdict_note": "Death-row conviction set aside as motivated probe; Rs 1L to acquitted man, recoverable from IO.",
 "verification_status": "V2",
 "verification_badge": "V2 · Externally reported",
 "tier_badge": "Externally reported",
 "tier": "Tier A — Externally reported or officially recorded",
 "tier_history": [
  "Tier A — Externally reported or officially recorded"
 ],
 "allegations": [
  {
   "category": "Other",
   "primary": true,
   "position": "Material fact supported",
   "position_explainer": "Reliable material supports a specifically documented fact relevant to that allegation, not necessarily the full allegation, causation, intent, unlawfulness, or responsibility.",
   "official_finding_relation": "supports allegation"
  }
 ],
 "institutional_response": [
  {
   "date": "2025-09-27",
   "action_type": "Order issued",
   "status": "Concluded",
   "authority": "Madhya Pradesh High Court",
   "independence": "External",
   "legal_effect": "Binding",
   "description": "The Madhya Pradesh High Court recorded adverse findings against police personnel and ordered Rs 100,000.",
   "disposition": "Compensation ordered · Supports allegation (for the compensated wrong only)",
   "source": "2025:MPHC-JBP:49936",
   "recheck": "Not yet re-checked."
  }
 ],
 "later_proceedings": [],
 "final_outcome_url": null,
 "followup_history": [
  {
   "date": "2026-09-19",
   "scope": "Round-8 full re-verification: published record re-checked against the judgment text (outcome, officers, quote, key facts) plus methodology-compliance pass",
   "method": "skills-guided adversarial re-verification of the published record against the judgment text (reverify/t1-*/adversarial-8.jsonl)",
   "result": "wrong_facts",
   "corrections_applied": [
    "officers",
    "sections"
   ]
  }
 ],
 "followup_status": "checked",
 "last_checked": "2026-09-19",
 "link_checked_per_url": [
  {
   "url": "https://mphc.gov.in/upload/jabalpur/MPHCJB/2024/CRRFC/1/CRRFC_1_2024_FinalOrder_27-09-2025_digi.pdf",
   "link_checked": null
  },
  {
   "url": "https://indiankanoon.org/doc/48035861/",
   "link_checked": null
  },
  {
   "url": "https://www.bhaskarenglish.in/amp/local/mp/news/mp-crime-files-05-11-2025-hc-overturned-death-sentence-of-man-accused-of-killing-nieces-136339082.html",
   "link_checked": null
  },
  {
   "url": "https://www.bhaskarenglish.in/local/mp/news/madhyapradesh-hc-overturns-death-penalty-says-negligent-police-probe-wrongly-punished-innocent-investigating-officer-fined-1-lakh-135908803.html",
   "link_checked": null
  }
 ],
 "source_assessment": {
  "established": null,
  "basis": null
 },
 "v3_basis": null,
 "publication_basis": null,
 "reviews": [],
 "retracted": {
  "is_retracted": false
 },
 "fidelity_checked": true,
 "verified_by": [
  "chunk-43"
 ],
 "merged_case_id": "SWFALSEI-016",
 "officers_named_public": 0,
 "record_flag": null,
 "service": "police",
 "watch": "babuwatch"
}