The Supreme Court has acquitted a person, who was accused in the murder of a woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur district in 1982.
The Bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan on Wednesday set aside the February 2018 order of the Allahabad High Court, which refused to set aside the conviction and life sentence imposed on the accused/appellant by the trial court.
The Apex Court noted that one of the co-accused had been acquitted by the trial court on the basis of the same evidence. It said the prosecution could not prove his guilt beyond all reasonable doubt.
Any lingering doubt about the involvement of an accused in the crime he was accused of committing, must weigh on the mind of the court, and in such a situation, the benefit of doubt must be given to the accused, it added.
As per the case, the woman was murdered allegedly due to her sons’ political rivalry with the accused.
The Bench noted that there were several discrepancies in the version of eye-witness accounts, including where the deceased was seated and shot from. Further, two of her sons were not examined during the trial and the murder weapon was also not recovered.
The Apex Court observed that there were glaring inconsistencies in the prosecution version, which have been magnified by the absence of testimony of the material witnesses and the ballistic report coupled with the non-recovery of the weapon of crime.
Quashing the High Court ruling, the Bench directed that the accused be released from jail immediately.
Accused/appellant Ram Singh was represented by Advocates Pradeep Kumar Mathur, Chiranjeev Johri, Chandra Nand Jha, MK Tiwari, Sitesh Kumar, Preeti and Arvind Kumar.
Senior Advocate Rana Mukherjee, along with Advocates Samarth Mohanty, Samarth Mohanty, Gantavya Gulati and Ankit Goel appeared for the Uttar Pradesh government.
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