Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has acquitted a man who had been serving a life sentence for allegedly strangling his cousin to death at a beach in Daman, observing that the prosecution failed to establish an unbroken chain of evidence.
Bhaiyalal Singh, who had been in custody since October 2018, was ordered to be released immediately unless required in any other case. The order was passed by a division bench of Justice Sarang Kotwal and Justice Sandesh Patil, which directed the authorities at Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar jail to facilitate his release.
According to a report by Maharashtra Times, the incident took place on October 2, 2018, when Singh, his cousin Ramlakhan, and an acquaintance, Asan Singh Sugriva, had gone for a walk on a beach in Daman. After spending time at the spot and getting a photograph taken, an argument allegedly broke out between Singh and Ramlakhan. The prosecution claimed that Singh strangled Ramlakhan using a shirt while Sugriva, who was intoxicated, was asleep.
When Sugriva later woke up, he was told by Bhaiyalal that Ramlakhan had left. The following day, after being unable to contact him, Sugriva received a call from the police informing him that Ramlakhan’s body had been found near Daman Polytechnic. The body was wrapped in a shirt, and a photograph featuring Singh was also recovered from the spot. Police later claimed to have found Ramlakhan’s Aadhaar card in Singh’s room, and forensic analysis reportedly showed that mud on Singh’s clothes matched soil from the scene.
Based on this evidence, a sessions court in Daman convicted Singh and sentenced him to life imprisonment on July 14, 2022. He subsequently challenged the conviction in the High Court.
During the appeal, the High Court examined the testimonies of nine witnesses, including Sugriva and a medical officer reported HT. The bench noted that Sugriva admitted during cross-examination that he was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident, raising doubts about the reliability of his account.
The court also pointed out inconsistencies in the timeline. While the body was discovered on October 2, the post-mortem was conducted only on October 9. Further, the prosecution failed to clearly establish the “last seen” theory, as there was no evidence about where the three got down from the rickshaw.
Observing that these discrepancies created reasonable doubt and that the chain of circumstantial evidence was incomplete, the bench set aside the conviction and ordered Singh’s immediate release.
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