HYDERABAD: Despite the brutal murder of a youngster working for an MNC in the city in 2016 being witnessed and the incident captured on CCTV camera, the accused managed to walk free on the basis of technical evidence and lack of motive.
The court agreed with the defence counsel’s contention that “the prosecution failed to prove motive as alleged against the accused and also failure to conduct the test identification parade (TIP) of the accused, which is fatal to the case” and pronounced the verdict.
The brutal murder took place in March 2016 near a commercial complex in Secunderabad. The 24-year-old victim had just completed engineering and joined an MNC located at Manikonda. After completing work, he partied with his friends and was returning home. En route, he noticed the accused in a car and requested them to drop him in Secunderabad.
While on the move, an argument broke between the accused and the victim and the victim slapped one of them. Later, they forced him out of the vehicle and stabbed him to death. Though a patrol team chased the accused, they managed to escape.
A CCTV from the complex clearly showed the accused stabbing the victim and a guard, who also rushed to the rescue, noticed the murder. Both these pieces of evidence were produced before the court as strong evidence against the accused.
The court pointed out that the investigation officer failed to send the CCTV footage to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) to ascertain its authencity. The footage was also not taken into consideration as it was not presented as per the provisions of the Evidence Act. The eyewitness too was declared as not reliable as the TIP was not conducted.
“Though there was some evidence to show that the victim died due to stab injuries, the prosecution could not connect the accused to the offence and it had also miserably failed to establish the identity of the accused,” noted the court.