2 men convicted of decades-old murder acquitted by Delhi HC
NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has overturned the conviction and life sentence of two men accused of a murder committed over 26 years ago. They have been acquitted on all charges, with the court holding that the mere fact that they were “last seen together” with the deceased does not prove their guilt.
A bench headed by Justice Suresh Kumar Kait, while deciding their appeals against the trial court’s decision of October 2001, maintained since they were working with the deceased, their presence together cannot be considered unusual. The bench, also comprising Justice Manoj Jain, emphasised that the “last seen theory” should be evaluated in context of the entire prosecution case, and there was insufficient evidence to conclusively link the accused to the crime. “We are of the view that it will not be safe to hold the accused guilty merely on the basis of the last seen together circumstance which is also not proved beyond shadow of doubt,” said the court in its judgement passed on April 16.
The body of the deceased was found on a railway track in July 1997 and led to the arrest of the appellants after a few days. The prosecution alleged that the deceased was killed because he came to know about the “illicit relationship” of one of the appellants with a woman.
The trial court returned the finding of guilt largely on the basis of circumstantial evidence while noting that the deceased was last seen by the witnesses in the company of the two accused. The sentence of life imprisonment of the two appellants was suspended by the high court in 2003 and 2004, respectively.While refusing to uphold the conviction, the court observed that the one such “last seen witness” had turned hostile and the testimony of others did not evoke confidence. Therefore, the benefit of the doubt should be extended to both the accused, it said. The two were migrant labourers who lived in slums near Nizamuddin railway station. Given that it was not the witnesses who had contacted the police, the court said it was “baffling as to how police contacted them”, and also questioned the probe undertaken by the agency. “It is not clear as to when the accused were arrested. Learned trial court was also kept in dark about the other cases fastened upon the accused, which murders had also been allegedly committed by them with the same objective. The motive, herein, is unclear and cannot be assumed from disclosure statements of the accused, being inadmissible in evidence,” the court said.
It also said the knife, which was stated to have been found near the body, had not been connected to the accused by the prosecution. “Curiously enough, on one hand, the prosecution has alleged that the accused persons were very clever and guileful and in order to screen themselves from legal punishment, they had thrown the dead body on railway track to portray it to be a case of a train-accident and on the other hand, they were fool enough that after committing the alleged murder, they would leave the weapon of offence at the spot. This paradox is not digestible. Secondly, no chance prints seem to have been collected from the knife and, therefore, it is not explained by the prosecution as to on what basis they were connecting the knife with the accused,” the court added.
