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Prayagraj, 15 May (HS). Allahabad High Court gave relief to the accused of murder that took place 43 years ago in Khesraha police station area of Basti and acquitted them. The Court said that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges against the petitioners-appellants beyond reasonable doubt.
Petitioner number one Jagdish has died. Hence, the case against him had already been closed. Whereas charges could not be framed against other petitioners Ram Achal and Vishdhar alias Sridhar. Both the accused are already on bail. Hence, their bail bonds and sureties are discharged. This order has been given by the division bench of Justice Siddharth Verma and Justice Vinod Diwakar while accepting the appeals of Jagdish and others.
The Court said that the testimony shows that the presence of the accused-appellants at the scene of the incident is suspicious. Witness numbers two and three stated that they were prevented from reaching the spot by the fourth accused. This is not proving the veracity of the prosecution. Witness two and three were relatives of the deceased and hence when Radhika, the girl who filed the complaint, said that she and her husband (deceased) were living in her maternal house, that statement is also not that true. This is not believable. The court accepted the appeal in view of these facts and evidence.
The incident took place on the intervening night of 19 and 20 July 1980. Radhika, the girl who filed the complaint, was sleeping in the verandah of the house with her husband Buchnu Tiwari. At 12 o'clock in the night, four people reached the spot with country-made pistols and sticks and fired and killed her husband. During the hearing, the trial court found the accused guilty and sentenced them to life imprisonment. The petitioners had challenged the trial court's decision in the High Court.