Maharashtra: Rape and murder case accused acquitted by court on benefit of doubt

A 33yearold man from Palghar in Maharashtra who was arrested in 2016 on the charge of raping and killing a woman and remained in jail since then has been acquitted of the charges by a local court that gave a benefit of doubt to him for want of sufficient evidenceThe court however held him guilty for giving false information to the police and sentenced him to six months of simple imprisonment But since he has spent the last seven years in jail he is not required to remain imprisoned any furtherAlso readMorbi bridge collapse 1262page chargesheet filed Oreva groups Jaysukh Patel included as accusedThe accused a tribal man from Wada taluka in Palghar was acquitted by Additional Sessions Court Judge A N Sirsikar in Thane on January 16 The copy of the order was made available on FridayThe man Sagar Waman Malavkar is a labourer from Varai Khurd villageAppearing for the prosecution additional public prosecutor Rakhi Pande told the court that the accused and the victim woman who was 18 years old then were in a relationship The woman had been asking him to marry her although he was already married and had childrenOn March 26 2016 he took the woman to an isolated place and raped her the prosecution said adding that after the incident the victim went into a nearby forest area and was later found dead The next day Malavkar told the personnel of Wada police station that the victim had committed suicide by hanging herself from a treeThe police sent the womans body for postmortem and inspected the crime site They raised doubts over the mans version that the victim had ended her own life as they found that the body was brought down but the cloth used for hanging was still tied to the tree the prosecution saidThe autopsy report later revealed the woman died of strangulation following which the accused was arrested and booked under Indian Penal Code IPC sections 376 rape 302 murder and 177 furnishing false information A local court had remanded him in jailIn the order passed earlier this month the sessions court said On perusal of information given by the accused to the police it appears that accused has given information that the woman committed suicide by hanging and he removed the dead body and put it on the ground in order to confirm as to whether she was aliveConsidering the postmortem report evidence the prosecution witness and other facts of the case it has been proven that the death was homicidal It is therefore proven that the accused gave false information to the public servant that is police officer and as such the offence under IPC section 177 has been proven against him the court saidThe prosecution has proven that the death of the woman was homicidal However it has failed to prove that the accused raped and murdered her The prosecution has proven that the accused furnished false information to the police officer about her death it saidThe prescribed punishment for the offence under section 177 of the IPC is simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months or with fine or with both the court said adding Considering the facts of the case if the accused is directed to suffer simple imprisonment for six months the same would be just and properThe accused has undergone detention from April 27 2016 till date Hence he is entitled for setoff for the period of above detention the court addedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever