{
  "season": 1,
  "episode": 1,
  "title": "Dashwanth v State of TN: How a Death Sentence Became an Acquittal",
  "slug": "dashwanth",
  "publish_date": "2026-06-05",
  "duration_seconds": 1181,
  "duration_display": "19:41",
  "bitrate_kbps": 192,
  "audio_file": "episodes/case-turn-ep01-dashwanth-asha-192k.mp3",
  "file_size_mb": 27.7,
  "format": "Mono, 44.1 kHz, 192 kbps MP3",
  "voice": "en-IN-NeerjaExpressiveNeural (Asha persona)",
  "summary": "On October 8, 2025, the Supreme Court of India acquitted a man who had been sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl in Chennai. The court did not say the crime did not happen - it said the prosecution had 'miserably failed' to prove who did it. This is the story of a trial the court itself called 'lopsided'.",
  "short_description": "How the Supreme Court of India overturned a death sentence for the rape-murder of a 7-year-old, citing six fatal flaws in the prosecution's case.",
  "description": "On October 8, 2025, the Supreme Court of India did something rare. It acquitted a man who had been on death row for nearly eight years. The man was Dashwanth. The child was Hasini. The Supreme Court did not say the crime did not happen. The court said the prosecution had - and I'm using the court's words - miserably failed to prove who did it. This is the story of three courtrooms and one man at the centre of all three. Trial, appeal, acquittal. The evidence the police built, the evidence the court demolished, and the system that built them. I'm Asha, and this is CaseTurn. The verdict is the verdict. The system is the system. We just read the file.",
  "tags": [
    "Indian Supreme Court",
    "death penalty",
    "acquittal",
    "Dashwanth",
    "Tamil Nadu",
    "Section 302 IPC",
    "POCSO",
    "wrongful conviction",
    "Indian judiciary",
    "legal analysis"
  ],
  "subjects": [
    "Law",
    "Criminal Justice",
    "Indian Courts",
    "Supreme Court of India",
    "Tamil Nadu Judiciary",
    "Death Penalty",
    "Wrongful Conviction"
  ],
  "citations": [
    "Supreme Court of India, Dashwanth v State of Tamil Nadu, Criminal Appeal Nos. 3633-3634 of 2024, judgment dated 8 October 2025 (2025 INSC 1203)",
    "Bench: Justices Vikram Nath, Sanjay Karol, and Sandeep Mehta (author)",
    "Trial court: Special Sessions Case No. 33 of 2017, Mahila Court, Chengalpattu, judgment dated 19 February 2018",
    "Madras High Court: Criminal Appeal No. 234 of 2018 and Referred Trial No. 1 of 2018, common judgment dated 10 July 2018"
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "label": "Supreme Court judgment (full text)",
      "url": "https://cdn.casemine.com/judgement/in/56ea7b0c607dba36e9456bd0/amp"
    },
    {
      "label": "LiveLaw summary of the SC judgment",
      "url": "https://www.livelaw.in/sc-judgments/2025-livelaw-sc-983-dashwanth-v-state-of-tamil-nadu-306272"
    },
    {
      "label": "Times of India - '4 mistakes cited' analysis",
      "url": "https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/madurai/dashwanth-acquittal-4-mistakes-cited/articleshow/124398148.cms"
    },
    {
      "label": "The News Minute - full breakdown",
      "url": "https://www.thenewsminute.com/tamil-nadu/breakdown-of-the-dashwanth-judgement-how-the-prosecution-failed-a-7-year-old"
    },
    {
      "label": "Lawcutor analysis",
      "url": "https://lawcutor.in/2025/10/08/supreme-court-acquits-dashwanth-in-2017-tamil-nadu-child-rape-murder-case-overturns-death-sentence-citing-prosecution-failures"
    }
  ],
  "chapters": [
    {
      "ts": "00:00",
      "title": "Cold open - The verdict"
    },
    {
      "ts": "00:30",
      "title": "Meet the case - 7-year-old Hasini, Mugalivakkam, Feb 2017"
    },
    {
      "ts": "01:30",
      "title": "The trial - 3.5 months from arrest to death sentence"
    },
    {
      "ts": "04:30",
      "title": "The High Court - Death sentence confirmed, July 2018"
    },
    {
      "ts": "06:00",
      "title": "The Supreme Court looks at the procedure - 'Hot haste'"
    },
    {
      "ts": "10:30",
      "title": "The evidence collapses - Last seen, CCTV, confession, DNA"
    },
    {
      "ts": "16:30",
      "title": "The verdict - 'Miserably failed' - Acquitted"
    },
    {
      "ts": "18:30",
      "title": "Closing - The system that built this"
    }
  ],
  "youtube_playlist": "Tamil Nadu Cases",
  "youtube_playlist_id": "PL_PLACEHOLDER_TN_CASES",
  "caseturn_video_url": "https://youtube.com/@caseturn",
  "related_episodes": [],
  "transcript_available": true,
  "explicit": false,
  "audio_url": "https://zo.pub/cashlessconsumer/caseturn-podcast/episodes/01-dashwanth-asha-192k.mp3",
  "audio_type": "audio/mpeg",
  "audio_size": 27701232,
  "cover_art_url": "https://zo.pub/cashlessconsumer/caseturn-podcast/art/cover_3000.jpg"
}