CHENNAI: Acquitting the 2017 rape-case convict S Dashwanth on Wednesday, the Supreme Court cited that the prosecution failed “miserably” in proving any of the four vital contentions on which the entire edifice of the case was based.
The contentions included last-seen-together theory, suspicious movement of the accused captured by the CCTV of a temple nearby, confessional statement, and the forensic reports.
The court also pointed out fundamental denial of fair trial, and raised doubts of confession statements being manipulated and recoveries and evidence being fabricated.
It further found “grave” constitutional and procedural lapses, including absence of defence counsel during framing of charges, and delivery of conviction and sentencing on the same day, which violated fundamental rights of right to life and rights of arrested persons. The apex court found the prosecution’s last-seen theory fabricated, and noted prosecution witness Murugan’s delayed and “unnatural” disclosure two months after the incident.
His failure to alert police or the victim’s family about the information he possessed even when Dashwanth was actively involved in the search for the child until the latter was arrested showed manipulation by the investigating officer to bolster an otherwise weak case, the court observed.
The forensic evidence were found to be unreliable due to broken chain of custody, delayed sample collection, lack of sealing proof, and serious doubts over DNA integrity and recovery authenticity.
Apart from this, the court held the narrative built using the CCTV footage that the accused was found roaming in the area around the time of occurrence of the crime to be probably fabricated, noting the missing footage, contradictory statements of witness, unclear visuals and withheld evidence.
It also found the police’s timeline of one-hour for the alleged rape, murder, and disposal of the body “unlikely”.
The court also noted glaring investigative lapses — no inquiry with other children in the apartment campus, no call record, attendance verification at his workplace, or identification parade.
A Devaneyan, a child rights activist, described the verdict as a black mark in the pursuit of justice for children, which has exposed the poor investigation and the manner in which trial happened.
“The conviction rate in Pocso cases is just 16% to 20%. Given the gruesome nature of the crime, the court should have ordered an inquiry by the CB-CID or CBI if the police had failed to prove the case,” he said.
Meanwhile, a senior police officer said the case has seen trials at many levels, including at the district court, high court and now the Supreme Court. “Since the apex court has acquitted him, we have to go through the judgment carefully and see what went wrong. We thought the case was strong enough, since he was convicted and it was upheld by the high court,” he added.
No appeal in acquittal in mother’s murder
After the acquittal of Dashwanth in the murder of his mother Sarala (42), sources said the state did not pursue an appeal as the evidence, on which the case was based, had “no merit” and was not likely to result in conviction.
Sources said Dashwanth’s father, Sekar, allegedly turned hostile during the trial in the Principal District and Sessions Court in Chengalpattu, which acquitted him on April 29 this year. Sarala (42) was found lying in a pool of blood at her residence in Kundrathur with deep cut injuries to her head on December 2, 2017.
Sekar, who had earlier defended his son in court in the case of rape and murder of the seven-year-old child, lodged a complaint stating that his son could have killed Sarala. Dashwanth had gone missing along with some jewellery. He was later arrested from Mumbai.
(With inputs from Subashini Vijayakumar @ Chennai and Rajalakshmi Sampath @ Chennai)
