Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Dec 26: High Court set aside the life sentence awarded to a man in rape and murder charges of two minor sisters about 22 years ago and acquitted with the direction for his release from jail.
The division bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Javed Iqbal Wani acquitted a man-Kamal Jeet Singh from rape and murder charges by terming the prosecution case a full of contradiction and conjectures.
The appellant-Singh was convicted and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for life by the trial court in the year 2016 and was arrested for raping and murdering two minor sisters in Budgam district of Central Kashmir.
According to prosecution case, a complaint was filed on 4-10-2002 by the grandfather of the victim girls at Police Station Beerwah Budgam, stating that on 3-10-2002, his two minor granddaughters, aged six years and three years respectively, returned home from their school at 4 pm and thereafter, the children, wearing their school uniform went towards the local Gurudwara but did not return thereafter.
Subsequently, a search was conducted by the police along with the members of the locals and the bodies of both the victims-minors were discovered from the house of a migrant Sikh, thereafter the police took custody of the bodies and arrested the accused. Upon interrogation of the accused, police said that he confessed to the police of having committed the crime.
The prosecution also stated that he brought mustard oil from his house in the absence of his family members in the steel glass and after committing the offence, he jumped from the attic of the house in the course of which he suffered injury on his right knee.
The trial court after the trial of the case finally on 10-12-2016, convicted and sentenced him to rigorous imprisonment for life and imposed a cumulative fine of Rs 75000 and the convictee challenged the order of his conviction and sentence before the High Court and the division bench after hearing the counsel representing the accused and the prosecution and examining the witnesses acquitted him from the charges of rape and murder.
“…the appellant (Singh) says that after he enticed the two girls to the SOC (Scene of crime), he went to his house to get the mustard oil and then came back to the SOC and committed the crime. This shows that there was no need for the appellant to jump from the attic, come back to the front door, lock it and then go home. If he had locked the front door, he could have come out of it and then locked it, there was no need for him to jump out of the attic,” the DB said.
The DB said, this narrative of the prosecution is based solely on the disclosure of Singh U/S 27 of the Evidence Act and it is “impermissible in law to use the disclosure statement beyond proving what was recovered at the behest of the accused.”
The bench in view the facts of the case and arguments advanced by the counsel for the parties , considered and held that the prosecution case against the appellant-Singh is nothing more than a bundle of contradictions, omissions, speculations and conjectures and it has miserably failed to prove the case against the appellant beyond reasonable doubt. The bench said “Under the circumstances, the impugned judgment of conviction is set aside, and the appellant is acquitted of all charges. He shall be released forthwith.”
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