New Delhi, Feb 11 A Delhi court acquitted two persons accused of murdering a 33-year-old Indian Air Force staffer in 2014 saying that the prosecution failed to prove the guilt of the accused persons beyond a reasonable doubt.
Additional Sessions Judge Gurmohina Kaur was hearing a case against Brahm Prakash alias Sunny and Khajaan Singh alias Renu accused of murdering Arun, working with the Indian Air Force, in 2014.
In an order dated February 5, the court said, "Merely on the basis of doubt of the family of the deceased, the accused persons cannot be convicted especially when the circumstantial evidence is insufficient and does not form a complete chain of events leading to the inescapable conclusion of guilt of the accused persons."
According to the prosecution, on the intervening night of December 27–28 in 2014, the accused allegedly hit Arun on the head multiple times with a stone and ran him over with a van.
Arun's body was found near a Delhi Jal Board site in Dwarka. Initially treated as a road accident, the case was later converted into a murder investigation.
It was further alleged that the accused also attempted to destroy evidence by discarding the deceased's mobile phone and washing blood stains off the vehicle.
"It is well-settled law that the burden to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt lies on the shoulders of the prosecution. The accused has a right to maintain silence in the trial. Every accused is to be presumed innocent until proved guilty," the judge said.
An FIR was registered in Dwarka North police station and charges were framed against both the accused under Sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) read with Section 34 (common intention) of the IPC.
The court noted that the chain of circumstances was not complete and that material inconsistencies and lapses in investigation created reasonable doubt.
"The complicity of the accused could have been proved by the ocular evidence or circumstantial evidence. The ocular witness turned hostile and the circumstantial evidence is insufficient to infer the guilt of the accused," the judge said.
The court noted that the stone or a brick allegedly used to hit the deceased was never found during the investigation and no other blood-stained stone was found at the spot.
"Nothing has come on record during trial as and when accused persons had washed the Eeco Car tyres and that place has not been investigated and no evidence has been collected in this regard," the court said.
Subsequently, it acquitted both the accused of all charges framed against them.
