NEW DELHI: A father and his son convicted in a 28-year-old murder case recently breathed a sigh of relief as the Supreme Court acquitted them. The two were charged with murder in a case that dated back to August 4, 1995.
The apex court observed that the prosecution failed to prove that they were involved in the death and assault of the deceased Altaf Hussain. A bench of Justices V Ramasubramanian and Pankaj Mithal set aside the order passed by a lower court in 1998 and upheld by the High Court in 2010.
The Supreme Court said, “We are of the view that the prosecution failed to prove to the hilt that the accused-appellants were the persons involved in the assault and death of the deceased Altaf Hussain. In the absence of any credible eye-witness to the incident and the fact that the presence of the accused-appellants at the place of incident is also not well established, we are constrained to accord the benefit of the doubt to both the accused-appellants.”
The SC bench while allowing the appeal also noted that there were no independent witnesses apart from two persons whose statements cast doubts on their versions. The SC bench acquitted the duo while dealing with a plea that was filed against the HC ruling convicting them for the offence of murder and sentencing them to life imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 20,000.