Strong Suspicion Against Accused Justifies Framing Charges: Supreme Court

Even a strong suspicion based on material on record raising the presumption of the role of an accused in an offence would justify the framing of charges in a criminal case, the Supreme Court held on Tuesday. Refusing to quash the framing of charges in a disproportionate assets case, a bench comprising justices Vikram Nath and KV Viswanathan said the top court was not supposed to conduct a “dress rehearsal of the trial”, that too at a preliminary stage where only the charges are framed by a lower court taking a prima facie view.