Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Sept 12: Observing that the prosecution has miserably failed to prove the case against the accused for commission of murder, High Court set aside the life sentence awarded to the accused and acquitted him from the charges with the direction to release him from the preventive custody.
The Division Bench of Justice V C Koul and Justice Mohan Lal allowed the appeal filed by one Abdul Hamid Naik of Banihal Ramban. Appellant-Naik had challenged the judgment of the trial court whereby he was convicted for the commission of offence under Section 302 (murder) of RPC.
“The Criminal Conviction Appeal, to be allowed, the same is allowed, therefore, the impugned judgment of conviction based on surmises, assumptions and presumptions being unsustainable in the eye of law are set aside and quashed”, read the judgment.
Court directed the Appellant-Malik lying in judicial custody is, therefore, acquitted of the charges levelled against him for commission of offences U/Ss 302 and Arms Act and he shall be forthwith released from the custody if not required in any other case.
The appellant-Malik was charged and convicted in a killing of one -Zarina by some unknown gunmen in the year 2003. All the prosecution eye witnesses in their statements have stated that they do not know the person who fired upon Zarina.
Court said, it was obligatory on the part of IO to get the Test Identification Parade (TIP) conducted to find out whether the suspect is the real offender or not, but in the case in hand no such Test Identification Parade (TIP) has been conducted by the investigating agency to find out whether appellant-convict was the real offender or not which is a serious lacuna in the prosecution case and demolishes the entire edifice of the prosecution version.
“We, on the basis of the evidence, hold that there is no legal evidence on record to prove that appellant-/convict is the mastermind of murder of deceased Zarina Banoo. The direct evidence and the circumstances as relied upon by the prosecution are not strong enough indicating the involvement of him in the commission of crime and all the circumstances are not compatible with the possibility of guilt of appellant”, read the judgment.
Court added the witnesses examined by the prosecution have not been able to put forth in their evidence a ring of truth so as to inspire confidence in this court as such evidence of prosecution witnesses, is therefore, qualitatively and quantitatively insufficient to bring nexus between appellant-convict and commission of the offences indicted against him.
“This renders the entire story of prosecution as incredible and unbelievable in the manner projected by the prosecution. On proper assessment, evaluation and estimation of the evidence adduced by the prosecution, the evidence appears to be weak, fragile, lacking in credibility, does not prove connecting link between the appellant and commission of offences”, Court recorded.
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