Rajasthan High Court Shocked At Death Penalty In Case With 'No Trace Of Evidence'; Acquits Man Accused Of Killing Siblings, Raping Sister

While answering the death reference in negative, Rajasthan High Court acquitted a man convicted for murder of two siblings and raping the sister.In doing so, a division bench of Justice Vinit Kumar Mathur and Justice Anuroop Singhi expressed its "astonishment" over trial court's decision of awarding death penalty to the appellant in a case wherein they struggled to find any trace of evidence supporting prosecution's case."It is a bit astonishing to note that a case wherein this Court is facing difficulty to find any trace of evidence supporting the case of the prosecution, the accused/appellant has been convicted with death sentence by the learned Trial Court. Not a whisper is found in the impugned judgment so as to make the present case fall within the category of “rarest of the rare” case"The Court highlighted that the case was solely based on circumstantial evidence, wherein the prosecution failed miserably in establishing the chain of events that led to the offence being committed by the appellant. “…present case solely based on circumstantial evidence, the prosecution has miserably failed to establish any chain of events leading to the offence being committed by the accused/appellant, no motive could be established, medical reports stand inconclusive, recoveries being made in absence of any independent witness are not worth relying upon and thus, the prosecution has failed to establish the case beyond all reasonable doubt so as to hold the accused/appellant guilty of the offences.”The appellant was convicted and sentenced to death by the trial court for the murder of two children who were brother and sister whose bodies were found sometime after they had gone out for grazing goats. In relation to this, death reference was filed by the State, and the accused had filed an appeal challenging the death sentence. The appellant was arrested from his house 8 days after the incident, and recovery of his shirt having blood stains of the deceased girl, and the alleged weapon was made from his house, at his instance. After hearing contentions and perusing all the records, the Court made following observations:Firstly, it was stated that since there was no eye witness, prosecution case relied solely upon circumstantial evidence and it was well settled that the murder conviction could happen purely based on circumstantial evidence if such evidence was established to the extent that it irrefutably pointed towards accused's guilt. “The said prosecution story fails to generate confidence as there is not an iota of evidence to say, much less to establish, as to why, how, and on what basis the accused/appellant was suspected and thereafter arrested for the said incident. As per the prosecution story, there is no connect, link or nexus between the incident and the accused/appellant till the date of his arrest. It was only after the arrest made on 09.05.2023 that the prosecution has built up a case on the basis of recovery of clothes and weapon.”The Court further stated that there no allegation of any animosity, enmity or underlying hostility amongst the appellant, victims or their family members, neither the appellant was named in the FIR. In this background, the Court also highlighted the fact that absence of motive, like in the present matter, in case of circumstantial evidence was a factor that weighed in favour of the accused. Suspicion was also raised on the manner in which recovery of the blood-stained shirt and the alleged weapon was made. It was highlighted that the said recoveries were made in the absence of any independent witnesses and in the presence of only two subordinate officials who were nothing but stock witnesses of the police. Hence, the recoveries failed to inspire confidence. It was held that the absence of independent witnesses during recovery was not fatal in itself, since the law did not mandate the same, however, when the remaining evidence was also weak or doubtful, such absence could further erode credibility of the prosecution case.“It may be true that the disclosure statement and resultant recovery of inculpatory material can constitute the basis of conviction, however, to sustain such guilt, the recovery has to be unimpeachable and not shrouded with elements of doubt.”It was also highlighted that no blood stains were found on the alleged weapon based on which it could be said that the same was used for committing the crime. In this light, it was opined that when the weapon was devoid of any blood stain, mere recovery of shirt having victim's blood stains could not be the sole basis to prove charge of murder.In light of this analysis, it was held that entire prosecution case was built on circumstantial evidence. At the same time, the Court stated that it was a bit astonishing that a case where it faced difficulty in finding any trace of evidence to support the prosecution case, the appellant was awarded death sentence by the trial Court. Accordingly, the death reference was answered in...

Rajasthan High Court Shocked At Death Penalty In Case With 'No Trace Of Evidence'; Acquits Man Accused Of Killing Siblings, Raping Sister

Nupur Agrawal

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