1978 Murder Case | Circumstances Alleged Against Accused Not Proved Satisfactorily: Allahabad HC Upholds Acquittal Order

The Allahabad High Court on Monday upheld the acquittal of an accused in a 1978 murder case, noting that many circumstances alleged against the accused had not been proved satisfactorily by the prosecution. The Court also opined that the chain of circumstances was incomplete to record the finding of conviction against the accused, and hence, the Court upheld the trial court's acquittal order. High Court's observations Having considered the rival submission made by the counsel for the parties and having gone through the record of this case, the Court found that there were two versions of the incident in question: one as stated by the prosecution, in which the accused-respondents were tried, and the other by the defence based on the report lodged by Mukhtiar Singh, the father of co-accused Sagar. A vital delay in lodging the first information report has not been satisfactorily proved and by no stretch of imagination, the chain of circumstance can be said to be complete so as to record the finding of conviction against accused-respondent by reversing the finding of acquittal recorded by the trial court, which finding in our opinion do not suffer from any illegality, perversity or impossibility,” the Court observed as it confirmed the acquittal order of the trial court finding it to be well reasoned and detailed order.