Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Nov 11: 4th Additional Sessions Judge Srinagar has acquitted one LeT militant Abdul Majid Cheechi, son of Din Mohammad Cheechi of Kupwara as prosecution failed to prove its case.
While acquitting the accused, the court observed, “the important fact is that the seized items like grenade and the rounds have not been examined by the ballistic expert so as to check whether they were in the working condition or not”, adding “there is no single witness or a document which could reveal that the alleged recovered items have ever been shown or forwarded to the ballistic expert in order to know about their working condition”.
The court further observed, “it is important to note that there were only five witnesses, two have been examined and the rest three have not been called in the court. Perusal of the list of witnesses reveals that IO as well as important witness Khalid Hussain has not been called in the court so as to explain lapses in the investigation and how they would not affect the varsity of the case”.
“The non examination of these witnesses also proves fatal to the prosecution. Weight of the depositions of the prosecution witnesses gets thus affected by the infirmities in the prosecution case like non-examination of the seized arms and ammunition by a ballistic expert, non-association of any public witness with the exercise of alleged recovery, omission to seal the seized property on spot, to obviate the scope of false implication of the accused to whom they are attributed and failure to produce investigating officer at trial who only could explain why the lapses occurred and how they would/would not affect the veracity of prosecution case, the court said.
With these observations, court held that the prosecution story does not inspire confidence. “There is no scope to hold the accused guilty under Section 7/25 Arms Act as such he is acquitted”, the court said.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel