The Chhattisgarh High Court has upheld the acquittal of ten individuals accused in the 2010 Tadmetla massacre, where 76 security personnel were killed in an attack attributed to Maoists. The court, led by Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Ravindra Kumar Agrawal, dismissed the state government's appeal, citing the prosecution's failure to provide legally admissible evidence linking the accused to the crime. The attack occurred during a joint operation by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and state police in Sukma district, Chhattisgarh, when they were ambushed by Maoists. The court noted that all prosecution witnesses had turned hostile, and there was a lack of eyewitness identification of the accused. The judges emphasized that the prosecution's case relied solely on circumstantial evidence, which did not meet the legal standards for conviction. They also pointed out significant deficiencies in the investigation, such as the absence of forensic evidence and proper witness examination. The court expressed disappointment over the failure to identify the actual perpetrators and issued directives for improving investigation protocols in cases involving mass casualties, including better collection of forensic evidence and training for investigators.