Delhi court acquits all five accused
More than 14 years after five men were accused of murder, a court here has acquitted them and asked the Delhi police commissioner to take necessary action because of “serious lapses” in the investigation.
New Delhi : More than 14 years after five men were accused of murder, a court here has acquitted them and asked the Delhi police commissioner to take necessary action because of “serious lapses” in the investigation.
Additional Sessions Judge Pankaj Arora was hearing a case against five men against whom the Sonia Vihar police station had registered a case under the penal provisions of murder, kidnapping and destruction of evidence. The prosecution alleged that the accused persons abducted and killed the victim, Kamal Singh, by inflicting iron rod blows and fist blows on him on July 12, 2010.
In its verdict dated February 28, the court noted that according to the post-mortem report, the victim had 76 injury marks, and to prove its case, the prosecution provided direct testimonies of three eyewitnesses along with circumstantial evidence.
During cross-examination, the court said the first eyewitness admitted that he did not see the incident, while the remaining two witnesses did not identify the five accused persons. Regarding circumstantial evidence, the court said there were grave doubts regarding the recoveries made by the police, including a car, an iron rod and the deceased’s wallet and slippers. “All the recoveries have been effected from open place, yet no efforts have been made to join any independent witness. No photograph of the places from where the recoveries were effected has been placed on record, and no daily diary (DD) entries regarding the departure and arrival of police officials from the police station at the time of effecting the recoveries have been placed on record,” the court said.
It also termed the timing and order of the recoveries doubtful. The court further underlined “a serious lapse” in the investigation for not sending the victim’s slippers, the iron rod, and the car for forensic analysis to determine whether they had blood stains on them.
“No efforts were made by the investigating agency to lift the fingerprints from the knife recovered alongside the body of the deceased,” the court said.
Trashing the prosecution’s claim that blood from the spot was washed by the accused persons, the court said no efforts were made to lift soil from the spot. “Since the recovery of incriminating articles is doubtful, the subsequent opinion of the autopsy surgeon whereby it has been opined that the recovered iron rod was used in inflicting injuries upon the deceased, which is a corroborative piece of evidence, loses its significance,” it said.
Stating that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, the court acquitted the accused persons -- Bachchan Nagar, Umesh Kumar, Yogesh, Parvinder and Praveen Nagar -- of all charges.
