Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday acquitted a man convicted of murdering his wife in 2001, holding that a conviction cannot rest on a retracted confession supported only by inquest and post-mortem evidence.
A Division Bench of Justices Rajasekhar Mantha and Ajay Kumar Gupta set aside the life sentence, holding that the prosecution failed to establish a complete chain of circumstantial evidence. The prosecution alleged that on the morning before the woman’s death, her father was informed that her husband and his elder brother were assaulting her at her matrimonial home. He allegedly went there and was assaulted. When he tried to take his daughter to the local police station, a friend of the husband allegedly intercepted him and forcibly took her back home.
The woman was found dead the next morning. A complaint accused the husband, his brother and the said individual of killing her by throttling and assaulting her with a wooden broom. The inquest noted that the woman’s mouth was open with teeth visible, her tongue was caught between the upper and lower teeth, and scar marks suggestive of a scuffle were present on her throat, along with other neck marks.
During the trial, the victim’s father, mother, sister and uncles turned hostile. The complainant-father denied having made the allegations attributed to him.
The High Court held that the prosecution failed to prove the foundational link of the alleged assault. It also noted that although the inquest report referred to strained marital relations, the inquest officer did not depose to any such allegation during the trial.
The Bench found serious infirmities in the medical evidence. The post-mortem doctor stated that the body was fully decomposed within about 30 hours. The scalp skin had peeled off, internal organs were putrefied, and the doctor could not determine whether the death was homicidal or natural, or whether the hyoid bone or laryngeal cartilage was fractured. Holding that inquest and post-mortem reports are not substantive evidence and cannot corroborate a retracted confession, the High Court ruled the chain of circumstances incomplete and ordered the appellant’s release on execution of a six-month bond.