Delhi HC acquits five molestation-murder convicts giving benefit of doubt

The Delhi High Court acquitted five molestationmurder convicts giving them the benefit of doubt while terming the testimony of eyewitnesses as not truthfulThe appellant had been awarded life imprisonment by the trial court in 2019They had challenged the trial court order of conviction and sentence This case is connected with the molestation and murder of a woman in the Uttam Nagar area on the night of 2829 March 2014The Division Bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani allowed five criminal appeals and set aside the judgement of conviction and order of sentence passed by the trial courtThe appeals were filed by Mantoo Sharma Beerpal Mohd Naseem alias Samim Naresh alias Anna and Jaipal The High Court has acquitted them and directed the release of the accused from custody unless required in any other caseThe bench while acquitting five appellants observed On the touchstone of the cardinal principle of criminal jurisprudence that contradictions in testimony are not acceptable though discrepancies may be we are not persuaded to accept the testimony of eyewitness as being truthfulThe eyewitness had confessed in the court that on the date of the incident he had consumed ganja This yet again makes us doubt the credibility of the prosecution witness as an eyewitness the bench observed in the judgement of May 24 2022The bench also observed If two views are possible on the evidence adduced in a case the view favouring the innocence of the accused should be adopted in our opinion in this case there are clearly two views that are possible in light of the several material contradictions in the prosecution case Such contradictions must ensure the benefits of the accused and we are therefore persuaded to accept the view favourable to the accused personsThe case pertains to the molestation and murder of a woman The allegation was that some of the appellants made the deceased consume liquor and subsequently molested her and then hit her on the head with a beer bottle and with pieces of brick and stone which led to her death The appellants were arrested pursuant to FIR They were convicted of murder by Tees Hazari CourtThe High Court also observed in the judgement No beer bottle nor any shards of glass were recovered from the crime scene nor were any traces of alcohol found in the victims body during postmortemThis 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