Supreme Court acquits murder accused in 1982 case after noting co-accused was acquitted on same evidence

Nearly 42 years after the murder of a woman at Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur district, the Supreme Court on Wednesday acquitted an accused in the case [Ram Singh vs State of Uttar Pradesh]..A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan noted that one of the co-accused had been acquitted by the trial court on the basis of same evidence.Hence, the same benefit of doubt must be extended accused Ram Singh (appellant/ accused) as well, the Court said."We are of the view that the appellant should be given the benefit of doubt as according to us, the prosecution could not prove his guilt beyond all reasonable doubt. Any lingering doubt about the involvement of an accused in the crime he is accused of committing, must weigh on the mind of the court and in such a situation, the benefit of doubt must be given to the accused," the bench observed..The verdict was passed after the accused moved the top court against a February 2018 Allahabad High Court ruling that had refused to set aside the conviction and life sentence imposed on the him by the trial court.The murder allegedly took place as the deceased's sons had political rivalry with the accused.The top court noted that there were several discrepancies in the version of eye-witness accounts, including where the deceased was seated and shot from. Further, two of her sons were not examined during trial and the the murder weapon was not recovered, the Court noted."It is evident that there are glaring inconsistencies in the prosecution version which have been magnified by the absence of the testimony of the material witnesses and the ballistic report coupled with the non-recovery of the weapon of crime," the Court said.Therefore, it set aside the conviction and sentence of the accused.20 years after double-murder, Supreme Court acquits accused .The appeal was, thus, allowed. The High Court ruling was quashed and the accused was directed to be released from jail immediately..Advocates Pradeep Kumar Mathur, Chiranjeev Johri, Chandra Nand Jha, MK Tiwari, Sitesh Kumar, Preeti and Arvind Kumar represented the accused, one Ram Singh.Senior Advocate Rana Mukherjee with advocates Samarth Mohanty, Samarth Mohanty, Gantavya Gulati and Ankit Goel appeared for the Uttar Pradesh government..[Read judgment]