India's Supreme Court has unexpectedly freed three men sentenced to death for the brutal gang rape and murder of a 19-year-old girl. The court said there was no convincing, incontrovertible and clear evidence that they had committed the crime, the BBC reports.

Ten years ago, a 19-year-old girl from Delhi was found raped in the fields of neighboring Haryana state. On the night of February 9, 2012, Anamika was returning home from work with three friends when she was abducted by men in a red car. The horrific crime made headlines in India after her partially burned, horribly mutilated body with signs of torture was found four days later.

But a three-judge panel raised serious questions about the police investigation, criticizing the court proceedings for glaring omissions in the trial.

The decision infuriated the victim's parents, shocked activists and lawyers, and sparked outrage on social media in a country where tens of thousands of rapes are reported each year.

Some compared the high court's decision to a recent Gujarat government order releasing convicts serving life sentences for the gang rape of pregnant Muslim woman Bilquis Bano and the murder of her relatives during the 2002 Gujarat religious riots.

Anamika's father said his "hopes for justice were dashed in a matter of minutes." 

"She just got her first paycheck and was thrilled," said anti-rape activist Yogita Bhayana, who has supported the family in their fight for justice for the past eight years.

During the trial, the prosecution argued that the case against the defendants was irrefutable -- they said they found one of the three men's wallets at the scene, that the suspects confessed to the crime and led police to the body and helped find the victim's clothes. DNA samples taken from blood, semen and hair stains found in the seized vehicle proved that the defendants and the victim were in the vehicle.

The trial court convicted the men and sentenced them to death two years later. In affirming their death sentence, the high court called the defendants "predators."

But the Supreme Court questioned the evidence presented by the prosecution and said it may have been tampered with. The court also said the physical evidence seized from the car was sent for examination on Feb. 27 - nearly two weeks after it was seized. "Under the circumstances, the possibility of tampering with the samples cannot be ruled out," the court noted.