'Cops planted evidence': SC acquits death row convict after a decade

NEW DELHI: A botched investigation by police, which also "planted" evidence, and lopsided proceedings by the trial court sent a man to the gallows in a rape-cum murder case of a child in Uttarakhand. After a decade in jail under the shadow of death, Supreme Court not only quashed his sentence but also acquitted him.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sanjay Karol and Sandeep Mehta, after examining all evidence, including the forensic report, did not find even a single piece of credible evidence against the man and pulled up the state police as well as the trial court for the way in which the investigation and prosecution were carried out. The court quashed his conviction by both the trial court as well as high court.

The incident occurred in Udham Singh Nagar district in June 2016 when the girl disappeared during a jagran and her body was found in a nearby field. The man was arrested a day later. The bench said when the FIR was lodged, none of the witnesses claimed to have seen the girl with the man, who was in charge of sound and light at the jagran, but they subsequently alleged so when police made him an accused.

There is no semblance of satisfactory evidence: Court

It also said the doctor who examined the girl was not cross-examined and he also did not disclose the name of the policeman to whom the samples were handed over nor did he state that the samples were sealed and were handed over in a secure condition. The court said police tried to stick the case on the man by getting his confessional statement.

"After being arrested, the appellant confessed to the crime and stated that the clothes which he was wearing at the time of commission of the offence were placed by him in a bag which he was carrying in his hand. He had also stated that he was intending to throw the clothes but before he could do so, he was caught by police. We feel that the theory put forward in the testimony of the said witness... is totally unbelievable. It is clear as daylight that these recoveries have been planted because it is hard, if not impossible, to believe that the appellant, who was a free bird and had ample opportunity to destroy the clothes, would keep the same with him for almost two days after the incident so as to facilitate police to recover the same at a later point of time," the bench said.

It said there was not even a "semblance of evidence" on record to satisfy the court that the samples collected from the girl's body and those collected from the man, which were later forwarded to the forensic science lab, were properly sealed or remained in a safe condition. "There is every possibility of the samples being tampered/manipulated by the police officers to achieve a favourable result from FSL, thereby, inculpating the appellant in the crime," it added.

The bench also found fault with trial proceedings as the accused was not properly represented. "Thus, it is established beyond doubt that the trial was not conducted in a fair manner," it said.

"The lopsided manner in which trial was conducted is fortified from the evidence of sub-inspector Prahlad Singh who was allowed to narrate the entire confession of the appellant in his examination-in-chief. This procedure adopted by the trial court in permitting a police officer to verbatim narrate the confession made by an accused during investigation is grossly illegal," tt said.