New Delhi, Dec 6 (PTI) A Delhi court acquitted a man accused of murdering two persons in 2014, poiting to doubts in the recoveries, scientific reports and witness statement and holding that the prosecution failed to establish a credible chain of circumstances.
Additional Sessions Judge Ankur Jain said the case rested entirely on circumstantial evidence after the supposed eyewitness, the minor son of one of the accused, turned hostile. The prosecution also failed to establish motive.
The case refers to a 2014 murder when police received a call about two bodies lying in an empty plot in West Kamal Vihar, Burari, the prosecution said.
The caller, Sohanvir, the prosecution said, identified one of the bodies as that of his relative Sansarpal Singh, but could not identify the other, later confirmed to be Manoj.
The prosecution alleged that Sohanvir and Lal Chand killed both men after drinking with them at his residence and then dumped their bodies in the plot nearby.
It relied heavily on the accused’s minor son’s statement. He described his father strangling the victims with a wire after an altercation.
In its order dated December 1, the court said that the minor witness, however, had turned hostile, and alleged that the previous statement was made “at the instance of police uncle”.
The court noted his deposition that on the day of the incident, his father had taken a leave from work, cooked a meal for him and directly went to bed as no guest or relative had visited the house that day.
“In the absence of any substantive evidence merely on the basis of the statement, which the witness had retracted, it cannot form the basis for convicting the accused”, the court said.
It said the recoveries, including liquor bottles, a wire and a bloodstained bedsheet, were made from open and accessible areas without corroboration from independent witnesses.
Judge Jain also noted that the bedsheet, which the prosecution claimed carried the DNA of one of the deceased, raised serious doubts, as it was seized wet but allegedly dried by police and sent to the forensic lab with a delay of over three months.
Call Detail Records (CDR) showed only that the accused and the deceased had been in touch but did not establish their presence together at the relevant time, the judge said.
Though Sohanvir’s blood sample was taken, the judge said it was not sent for chemical analysis and so there was no report to show that the accused had consumed alcohol.
“Suspicion, however strong it may be, cannot take the place of proof beyond reasonable doubt,” the judge said acquitting the accused on the grounds that the prosecution failed to establish a complete and reliable chain of circumstances.
Co-accused Lal Chand was granted interim bail during the trial but thereafter he did not appear and was declared proclaimed offended in April 2023.PTI MDB MNR SKY SKY
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