INDIA: ALLAHABAD HC ACQUITS MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH BY LOWER COURT

June 3, 2020:

The Allahabad High Court on 2nd June 2020 acquitted a man, who was awarded death penalty by a local court for murdering his mother, wife and a four-year-old son in Tanda, Ambedkar Nagar, in 2013.
Pronouncing the judgment, a division bench of justices RR Awasthi and V K Srivastav held that the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt and hence, the conviction and sentence did not sustain in the eyes of law.
Appellant Ram Kumar Saini had challenged before the Lucknow bench of the high court the verdict of the additional sessions judge, Ambedkar Nagar, passed on 15 February 2017, whereby he was held guilty for the triple murder so that he could have an illicit relationship with a woman.
Arguing for the appellant, senior lawyer Nagendra Mohan pleaded that the entire case was based on circumstantial evidence and there was no direct evidence against his client.
Not even the police had believed the illicit relationship theory.
In view of this, the bench concluded that the prosecution's version of the incident was not reliable and the trial court had erred in convicting and sentencing the appellant.