NEW DELHI, Oct 27: A court here has acquitted a man of robbery charges, saying Delhi Police conducted a faulty investigation and pointed to contradictions in the statements of prosecution witnesses.
It observed that the prosecution had “miserably failed” to prove the charges, and added that the genesis of the case could not be proved.
Additional Sessions Judge Atul Ahlawat was hearing the case against Ved Prakash who was accused of robbing the complainant’s mobile phone and wallet near a bus stand in northeast Delhi’s Sonia Vihar on May 12, 2018.
In its judgment pronounced on October 18, the court said that according to the complainant and his friend, police reached the spot after someone made a Police Control Room (PCR) call.
“However the investigating officer (IO) did not make any efforts to trace the said caller and he was not made a prosecution witness in the present case. Therefore, the prosecution could not establish the genesis of the prosecution story,” the court said.
It said that the daily diary (DD) entry of the case was not produced before the court, which further dented the prosecution’s case.
“There is nothing except the alleged recovery of the mobile phone from the accused to link him with the offences in question. However, there are considerable doubts regarding his apprehension and arrest in the present case,” the court said.
“Also, the prosecution could not prove the said mobile phone belonged to the complainant; therefore based on the material brought on record, the accused cannot be convicted for the offences he has been charged with in the present case,” it added.
The court noted that another accused in the case, Sunil, had died during the trial due to which proceedings against him were abated but the circumstances of his arrest deserved a “special mention” as they were “highly suspicious”.
According to the prosecution, two days after the incident, the complainant happened to see Sunil and called the IO, who reached the spot and arrested him and during Sunil’s search, a knife and the stolen wallet were recovered, the court noted.
It said, “What is baffling to the mind of this court is that two days after the incident, accused Sunil is allegedly roaming around with the robbed articles, and there were no allegations of accused using any knife during the commission of the alleged offence.”
So there was “a huge shadow of doubt” upon the Delhi Police’s version of the case, the court said.
“Therefore, the inherent contradictions and inconsistencies in the deposition of the complainant and his friend, coupled with a faulty investigation conducted by the police, is further aggravated by the lapses on the part of the prosecution in not proving the genesis of their case,” the court said.
It said the evidence brought on record was not worthy of acceptance, nor did the prosecution witnesses inspire confidence.
“Hence, they strike at the very root of the prosecution story rendering it to be improbable and unbelievable. Therefore, in the opinion of this court, there is no doubt that the prosecution has miserably failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt and hence, the accused is acquitted,” the court said. (PTI)
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