'Unfortunate That He Remained In Jail For 12 Years Despite Lack Of Evidence': Allahabad HC Acquits Murder-Rape Convict

A bench of Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Mohd. Azhar Husain Idrisi also noted its inclination to make “harsh” observations against the Investigating Officer and the Presiding Officer. However, the court refrained from doing so since they were not heard by the bench.

In its analysis of the evidence put forth by the prosecution against the accused, the Court found that there was no recovery from the accused or that the dead body had been recovered on his pointing out. In fact, no weapon of assault had been recovered from the appellant.

“The only basis to implicate the accused appellant is the suspicion on account of alleged reclaiming of land by the informant from the accused appellant about three years back. (9) Mere apprehension howsoever strong cannot be the substitute for evidence which alone can justify implication of an accused,” the Court further added as it allowed the appeal of the convict who had moved the Court challenging his conviction under murder and rape charges.

The case in brief

The informant gave a written report at the police station, alleging that on March 18, 2012, his daughter, aged 11, had gone alone to fetch fodder from the field. When she did not return until 4-5 p.m., the family members were concerned.

It was claimed that the informant kept searching for his daughter, and ultimately, the dead body of the deceased daughter was found near a wheat field. there were signs of injuries on her neck and apprehension was expressed that she had done to death.

The role of the accused-appellant surfaced based on information given to the deceased's parents by the family members.

After recording the witness statement under Section 161 CrPC., the Investigating Officer concluded the investigation and submitted a chargesheet against the accused-appellant under Sections 302, 376, 201 IPC and 3(2) (V) SC/ST Act.

The Additional Session Judge, Shahjahanpur, convicted the accused and sentenced him to life imprisonment under sections 302, 376 IPC and 3(2)(V) SC/ ST Act with a Rs.5,000/-fine. Challenging his conviction, he moved the HC.

Before the HC, the Counsel for the accused-appellant argued that the accused-appellant had been falsely implicated only on account of suspicion of the parents of the deceased as there was absolutely no evidence of any kind produced by the prosecution to prove his guilt.

The submission was made to the effect that it was neither a case of direct evidence nor any circumstance adverse to the accused-appellant has been produced to implicate him.

High Court's observations

Having gone through the evidence on record, which consists of documentary and oral testimony, the Court noted that none of the circumstances has been produced by the prosecution to implicate the accused-appellant.

The Court further noted that PW-2 (the deceased's father) admittedly was not present in the village when the incident occurred, and PW-1 (the deceased's mother) also admitted that she had not seen the accused-appellant committing the offence.

The Court further found that no one otherwise had been produced in the court who had seen the incident or any incriminating material against the accused-appellant had been produced.

In view of this, the court stressed that in the absence of evidence worth the name, it was difficult to approve the judgment of conviction and sentence of the trial court in the facts of the present case.

The court also observed that the trial court had not evaluated the evidence led during the trial from the correct perspective; therefore, the impugned judgement and order of conviction and sentence were liable to be reversed.

Consequently, the appeal was allowed by setting aside the judgment, order of conviction, and sentence, and the appellant was acquitted of the charges levelled against him.

Since the appellant is in jail, the Court directed that he be released forthwith.

Also read: Victim's Testimony 'Unreliable', She Appears To Be A Consenting Party: Allahabad High Court Acquits Man In 1984 Rape Case

Case title – Nanhaku Singh vs. State of U.P. 2024 LiveLaw (AB) 274

Case citation: 2024 LiveLaw (AB) 274

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