Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 8: High Court has upheld the acquittal of LeT militants and dismissed the appeal filed by the UT Government.
Justice MA Chowdhary observed, “the story of the prosecution seems to be unreliable in view of the fact that the seven persons allegedly involved in terrorist activities and as alleged by the police to be members of Lashkar-e-Toiba were sitting like ducks at a public place in wildlife Sanctuary at Manda waiting for the police to be arrested without any reaction and despite availability of the weapon/explosives they had not used them to retaliate while being arrested by the police.”
“The police had initially registered the case for the commission of the sedition offences against the State, however, later before filing of the charge-sheet those offences were dropped and the charge-sheet was laid against the accused for the commission of offences punishable under Arms Act and Explosive Substances Act only”, High Court said.
“Since most of the prosecution witnesses have failed to identify any of the accused in the court while being examined and the recovery from the possession of the accused of the pistol and the grenades was also doubtful and no independent witness despite availability, was associated with the process of recovery and seizure, the trial court by a very reasoned judgment has held that the prosecution had failed to prove the case to bring home the charge against any of the accused”, High Court said.
High Court further observed, “prosecution has not only failed to produce on record any statement/certificate from any ballistic expert or any expert from FSL to prove that the seized grenades and the pistol had been sent for ballistic examination by the experts. This is also a serious infirmity to be taken into consideration, as in such a situation, the offences of which the accused were alleged to have committed cannot be said to have been proved.”
“The weapon and explosives claimed to have been recovered from the accused/respondents, were neither marked on spot, nor sealed, not sent to any Ballistic Expert to examine whether weapon was in working condition or the explosives were live”, High Court said, adding “in absence of these factors, it cannot be said that weapons/explosives were seized and recovered.”
With these observations, High Court said, “prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt to bring home the charge against the accused for the commission of any of the offences of which the accused had been charged”, adding “the impugned judgment, being reasoned on sound legal grounds, does not require any interference by this court while deciding the matter invoking the appellate jurisdiction.”
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