The Allahabad High Court has overturned the life imprisonment sentences of six men accused of murdering four individuals, declaring them not guilty due to insufficient evidence from the prosecution.
The decision was made by a division bench comprising Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Mayank Kumar Jain, who accepted the appeals of the defendants: Ved alias Vedpal, Ganga, Jagan, Pyare, Rakesh, and Bablu alias Balua.
The case originated on May 25, 2004, when Bunty, the son of one of the deceased, Dinesh, lodged an FIR at the Dibai police station in Bulandshahr. The FIR alleged that, driven by an old enmity, Kunwar Singh, Santosh, Dinesh, and Jaleem Singh were murdered while sleeping near a tubewell at night.
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In June 2007, the trial court convicted the six men and sentenced them to life imprisonment, a ruling that was subsequently challenged in the High Court.
In their ruling, the High Court noted that the prosecution failed to establish the source of light at the crime scene, which was crucial for witness identification. Witnesses claimed they identified the accused using a torchlight, but the investigating officer did not recover or present the torch as evidence.
As a result of these discrepancies, the court acquitted the accused, granting them the benefit of the doubt.
