The Rajasthan High Court has acquitted a man nearly three decades after he was convicted of murder by a trial court. A Division Bench of Justice Avneesh Jhingan and Justice Baljinder Sandhu set aside the conviction of Rajendra, who had been serving a life sentence since 1996, observing that the evidence relied upon by the trial court was insufficient to sustain the charge.
The Bench found that the conviction was primarily based on the testimony that the accused and the victim were “last seen together.” It held that such evidence alone could not form the basis of a conviction for murder. The Court also pointed out glaring deficiencies in the investigation, particularly in relation to the recovery process and the post-mortem report.
The case arose when Dharam Pal was allegedly murdered. Two men, Shyam and Rajendra, were arrested and later convicted by the Additional Sessions Judge. Both were sentenced to life imprisonment. While the appeal against the conviction remained pending before the High Court, one of the appellants, Shyam, passed away in 2015.
The appellants argued that the police had attributed theft as the motive for the crime but had failed to recover any stolen property. The prosecution’s claim that the deceased was poisoned through liquor also remained unsubstantiated. The only physical evidence, a woollen cap allegedly linked to one of the accused, could not be conclusively proven to belong to him.
Accepting these contentions, the Bench set aside the trial court’s order and acquitted Rajendra. The Court made it clear that the prosecution’s case, built largely on conjecture and weak circumstantial evidence, did not meet the standard required for a conviction under criminal law.
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