Odisha HC acquits 18 in Kandhamal sorcery lynching case
CUTTACK: All 18 persons involved in a 1998 lynching incident at Duguripari village under G Udaygiri police station limits in Kandhamal district, have been acquitted by the Orissa High Court on Tuesday.
A man was allegedly beaten to death over suspicion of practising sorcery in the village on November 11, 1998. The court of Sessions Judge, Phulbani on April 19, 2001 convicted 18 persons in the murder case and sentenced them to life imprisonment.
However, all the 18 persons were out on bail after they filed criminal appeals challenging the trial court verdict. Allowing the appeals, the division bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice RK Pattanaik said, “There is no evidence to link each of the appellants to the offence or even indicate the precise role played by each of them. They are entitled to the benefit of doubt. They are all accordingly acquitted.”
The bench said this was a case where there was no dead body to be found.
There was no medical or forensic evidence as such to corroborate the testimonies of the prosecution eye witnesses. The purported ashes recovered of the burnt body of the deceased were not sent for forensic examination.
“While it is true that the conviction can be based on even a single witness who is reliable and trustworthy, in the present case, the deposition of Kamala Pradhan (wife of the deceased) as a prosecution witness does not persuade the court that she is speaking the truth. She also appears to be concealing more than what she is aware of. It is not safe to base the conviction of as many as 18 persons for such a grave offence on her evidence”, the bench observed.
“The crucial part of the evidence of Kamala where she purportedly could identify as many as 18 accused by stating that she saw them on a dark night account is rendered totally unbelievable,” the bench also observed.