Thane, Jul 30 A Thane court has acquitted four men accused of beating a 30-year-old man to death after tying him to an electricity pole on suspicion of theft.
In his order of July 27, details of which were made available on Thursday, Sessions Court Judge RD Sawant cited lack of substantive evidence, delay in test identification, and witnesses turning hostile.
The four men, identified as Rajesh Suresh Nishad, Harimohan Sunder Nishad, Vishnu Chandrabhan Yadav, and Narsingh Paras Yadav, were arrested for the incident which took place on September 11, 2017 in Navghar in Bhayander East.
They were accused of tying up Ramesh Shivraj Patil to an electricity pole with nylon ropes and assaulting him with sticks etc, leading to his death due to a brain injury.
The court noted that crucial eyewitnesses failed to support the prosecution's case, while the informant who lodged the FIR did not step forward to testify.
The judge highlighted that the test identification parade was conducted after a delay of 58 days and the magistrate who conducted it was not made available for cross-examination.
Except the voluntary statement of accused and recovery of the articles at their instance, there is no other evidence on record, the judge said in his order.
No chemical analyser reports are produced, and no CCTV footage has been played before the court, it added while acquitting the four.
