Patna: The Patna High Court has released a man, who was sentenced to death for allegedly raping and killing a 16-year-old girl under the Barhara police station in the Bhojpur Bihar district.
The court also released two other people, who was awarded a life sentence in the same case.
The last hearing in their appeal occurred on Friday.
The Division of Judge Division Ashwani Kumar Singh and Arvind Srivastava observed that the police did not bother visiting the crime and submitting that the girl’s body had recovered at the statement of the death penalty of Balwant Singh.
The body can be restored early, he said.
The Public Prosecutor (HC) Abhimanyu Sharma said the bench ruled out the Pocso court order gave the death penalty to Balwant in 2019.
“It also set aside a lifelong prison order to two other inmates, Chotu Singh and Anand Pandey,” he said.
The bench observed that the prosecution failed to prove the case beyond doubts that made sense against the applicants.
The girl’s father had filed firmly against Balwant, Chotu and other unknown people on February 5, 2018, accused that his daughter had been raped and killed by the trio.
The police first submitted a Chargesheet against Balwant on May 3, 2018, and additional Chargesheet against the other two on September 20, 2018.
HC also found a contradiction in the statement of the victim’s father, investigative officers and witnesses.
It observed that kidnapping took place on January 31 and the body had recovered on February 5 after that FIR was submitted.
But there is no reasonable explanation of delays.