CUTTACK: A person sentenced to imprisonment for life following conviction in a case of murder 23 years back, was acquitted by the Orissa High Court, on grounds of benefit of doubt. The High Court had earlier granted him bail in 2000.
While allowing Ramesh Sahu’s criminal appeal on Tuesday, October 5, 2021, a division bench of Justice SK Mishra and Justice Savitri Ratho said, “Keeping in view the materials on record, we are of the opinion that the prosecution has not established its case beyond all reasonable doubt and the benefit of doubt goes to the appellant. We, therefore, hold that the Sessions Judge committed an error on record by holding the appellant guilty of the offence under section 302 of the Penal Code. Hence, the appeal is allowed. His conviction under section 302 of the Penal Code and the sentence of imprisonment of life is hereby set aside.”
The incident involved the death of Maguni Pradhan due to a blow by an axe during a scuffle over land dispute at Komira village within Biramarajpur police limits in Balangir district on November 28, 1996.
The Sessions Judge of Bolangir Sonepur had convicted and sentenced Ramesh to imprisonment for life on May 16, 1998.
The High Court Bench in its 21-page long judgment said that the materials available on record show that the solitary eyewitness is fraught with contradictions and his evidence cannot be relied upon as they do not fit the anvils of objective circumstances of the case as proposed by the prosecution.