Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 1: Division Bench of High Court comprising Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Justice MA Chowdhary has set-aside the death sentence of one Shanker, who was allegedly involved in minor’s rape and murder case.
“It is indeed a case of gruesome killing of a minor girl aged 7/8 years and, that too, probably after subjecting her to brutal rape (the injuries noticed by the Doctor points to that). But one cannot send a person accused of commission of crime to gallows or in the imprisonment for life in absence of concrete and reliable evidence, more so when there are no eye witnesses to the crime and the entire case of the prosecution is rested on circumstantial evidence not proved in the manner prescribed by law”, the DB said and set aside the judgment passed by the trial court.
“The appellant is acquitted of all the charges. He shall be set at liberty forthwith, if not required in any other case”, the DB ordered.
“The legal position remains that it is for the prosecution which brings out accusations against the accused, to prove such accusations by leading evidence beyond reasonable doubt. It is true that failure of the accused to explain the incriminating circumstances appearing against him in the prosecution evidence is reflective of his conduct and could be taken as additional link in the chain of circumstances leading to the hypothesis inconsistent with the innocence of the accused”, the DB said, adding “in this case we find the important incriminating circumstances like the last seen and disclosure statement having not been established firmly and conclusively”.
“The evidence led to prove the circumstances is too weak and feeble to come to a definite conclusion about the guilt of the accused. Delay of about more than two months in completing the inquest proceedings and then recording of the statements of some of the material witnesses in the month of August, 2010 i.e. about four months of the occurrence, are the factors which have shaken the credibility of the prosecution case”, the DB remarked.
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