Important Legal Definitions

"The body of the crime." The concrete, objective evidentiary foundation establishing that a specific crime has actually occurred (does not require the recovery of a physical dead body in homicide cases if circumstantial evidence is conclusive).

In Sevaka Perumal v. State of Tamil Nadu, the Supreme Court held that the recovery of the physical dead body is not indispensable to convict an accused of murder, provided the prosecution conclusively proves the corpus delicti through reliable circumstantial links.