The prosecution failed to establish the case against the accused beyond a reasonable doubt, according to a bench consisting of Justices Siddhartha Varma and Vinod Diwakar.
Three defendants who were found guilty of a 1980 murder were cleared last week by the Allahabad High Court [Rajesh and Others v. State].
A bench consisting of Justices Vinod Diwakar and Siddhartha Varma believed that the prosecution could not establish the case against the defendants beyond a reasonable doubt.
Thus, it overturned the Muzaffarnagar trial court’s 1982 ruling, which had sentenced the three to life in jail. The Court said that anytime a doubt is raised in the court’s mind, the accused must always be given the benefit of the doubt.
It is believed that the conviction of the appellants would be risky if the prosecution had not been able to establish its case beyond a reasonable doubt . The Court stated ; “ We believe that the court is left with doubts after reviewing all the evidence , the appeal should be granted and the appellants must be found not guilty”
The case began on January 8, 1980, when an Ajay Kumar complaint of missing persons was made to the Muzaffarnagar police station. Kumar had not been back to his house since January 6, 1980, when he departed to visit his friend Rajesh Kumar, it was found during the preliminary investigation.
The First Information Report (FIR) also mentioned that not even Rajesh Kumar could be located. Subsequently, the missing report was changed to an abduction case under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 364 .
As a result, the Court cleared the accused, believing that the prosecution had not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
