Accused cannot be held guilty merely on basis of circumstantial evidence: Allahabad HC

The Allahabad High Court, saying that "though motive and abscondence may give rise to strong suspicion, merely on the basis of these two circumstances, an accused cannot be held guilty", has acquitted a murder accused who was awarded death penalty by a trial court.

While allowing an appeal filed by one Ram Pratap alias Tillu of Etawah district, a division bench comprising Justice Manoj Misra and Justice Sameer Jain set aside the trial court judgment on the ground that the case was based on circumstantial evidence, and the chain of circumstances pointing to the guilt of the appellant could not be completed.

The court acquitted the appellant Ram Pratap of all the charges for which he was tried. "The appellant shall be released forthwith, unless wanted in any other case," the court ordered.

The judgment was passed in an appeal against an order of conviction by the Additional Sessions Judge, Etawah for the offence of murder, awarding the appellant the death sentence with a fine of Rs 5 lakh.

Six members of a family were brutally murdered over a property dispute between two brothers in May 2012.

The appellant was the deceased's brother. The prosecution alleged that the appellant, with an associate's help, murdered the deceased and his five family members and fled.

On examining the evidence on record, the trial court convicted the appellant while acquitting the co-accused. It also called it 'rarest of rare case' and awarded death penalty.

The appellant submitted that the trial court committed a grave error in convicting him since there was no admissible evidence in the case. It was brought to the court's attention that there were no eye-witness accounts of the incident and the entire case was based on circumstantial evidence.