E-Paper
Chandigarh: Procedural lapses led to acquittal in Sector 15 double murder
On February 4, a Chandigarh court had acquitted Ankit Narwal, a former DAV College student leader; Sunil, alias Sillu, a BA student at a Panipat college; Vicky, alias Kalia, and Amit
Procedural lapses by police during probe and the star witness’s inability to support the prosecution’s case led to the acquittal of the four accused in the 2019 double murder where two college students were shot dead in Sector 15.
On February 4, a local court had acquitted Ankit Narwal, a former DAV College student leader; Sunil, alias Sillu, a BA student at a Panipat college; Vicky, alias Kalia, and Amit.
They were arrested following the complaint of Mohit Punia, a friend of the two victims, Ajay Sharma and Vineet Kumar.
The court of additional sessions judge Jaibir Singh observed that despite examining 22 witnesses, the prosecution was unable to establish the accused’s guilt. The star witness, Mohit Punia, had also categorically stated that the accused present in court were not the persons who had murdered Ajay and Vineet. He had claimed that the police had tortured him and made him sign blank documents.
The court observed that while the use of arms allegedly recovered from the accused was not disputed even by the defence, the recovery of the arms from the possession of the accused was not proved beyond doubt.
The murder FIR was registered on December 19, 2019, and the accused were arrested on December 30, 2019, when the arms were also said to have been recovered.
The arrest was made based on secret information, but the court noted that the version of prosecution witness, sub-inspector Ashok Kumar of crime branch, was not consistent and created doubt in the mind of the court regarding where the secret information came from.
The court observed that credence could not be given to the deposition of the prosecution witnesses in respect of recoveries, as the case property was sent to CFSL, Chandigarh, after considerable delay and it could have been easily tampered with by police.
It noted that the number of arms recovered has also been stated differently by different witnesses.
The version of sub-inspector Kuldeep Singh, the first investigating officer, didn’t inspire full confidence of the court and it seemed unnatural that he found the complainant at the main gate of the police station and not at PGIMER, where the victims were taken after being shot.
The court also noted that the main witness of the prosecution, inspector Sher Singh, who was posted as inspector of crime branch, initially wrongly named one of the accused and could not specifically state in court the recoveries from the different accused.
It said there was no explanation for non-joining of independent witnesses at the time of alleged recoveries.
“Merely by linking the weapons of offence with the crime through CFSL reports, the case of the prosecution cannot be said as proved in absence of linkage between the accused and the recovery of those arms,” the court said, adding that no motive had been established by the prosecution.
“It is the cardinal principle of law that even if 10 guilty persons escape, not a single innocent person should be convicted,” the court remarked while acquitting the accused.
