Court acquits 4 men in 10-year-old kidnapping, murder case

New Delhi: A Delhi court has acquitted four men in a 10-year-old kidnapping and murder case by giving them a benefit of doubt due to the lack of direct evidence against them.

As per Delhi Police, a man named Shakeel was allegedly kidnapped and murdered by his wife's ex-husband, step-father, brother-in-law and one other person in 2010 in Delhi's Khajuri Khas area for marrying her.

Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Yadav acquitted the four men after noting that there was no direct evidence against them and the case propounded by the police was entirely based on circumstantial evidence.

He held that there were no eye-witnesses, the dead body and weapon of offence were not recovered, months'' delay in recording the FIR and no scientific evidence was brought on record by the police to substantiate their claims.

"The deceased was also involved in various criminal activities. The submissions put forth by defence counsel(s) that the deceased might have been abducted and murdered by his rivals seems probable on this count," the judge added.

"I have no hesitation in holding that the prosecution has miserably failed to bring home the guilt of the accused in respect of offences charged beyond reasonable shadow of doubt," he stated in a 46-page judgement dated September 20.

During the trial, the Additional Public Prosecutor submitted that though there was no direct evidence, there were a number of circumstances of definite, conclusive nature and tendency to prove the case beyond reasonable shadow of doubt.

The circumstances relied upon by the police were recovery of the motorcycle of the deceased, strong motive for commission of crime, call data record details of the accused, presence of two accused at deceased''s flat after his disappearance.

ASJ Yadav, however, said that the circumstances were not of definite character and do not point towards guilt of accused persons. The judge acquitted Bijender, Pawan, Taslim Ahmed and Salim of the offences such as kidnapping, murder and destruction of evidence by giving them benefit of doubt.

Notably, Salim was the ex-husband of the deceased's wife, while Bijender is her step-father and Pawan is brother-in-law. Besides the four men, one Akil was also arraigned as an accused but he expired during the trial.

In his disclosure statement, Bijender had stated that he and his son in law Salim were "very upset with the deceased for having married Renu and as such they hatched a plan to eliminate him".