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Allahabad HC acquits man jailed for wife’s murder
The Allahabad High Court acquitted Hafiz Khan of his wife's murder, ordered a ₹1 lakh compensation for wrongful imprisonment, citing lack of evidence.
The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court not only set aside the session court’s life sentence to a man lodged in jail for seven-and-a-half years for the murder of his wife but also directed the state government to give ₹one lakh compensation to him for the period he spent in custody.
A division bench of Justice AR Masoodi and Justice Subhash Vidyarthi on Friday (September 13) observed that the prosecution had failed to prove that the body recovered was that of Hafiz Khan’s wife. The court passed the order on Khan’s petition challenging his conviction by the session court, Bahraich.
Additional sessions judge, Bahraich, Nand Pratap Ojha, on March 27, 2019, had passed the order awarding life term to Hafiz. He had challenged the session court’s order in the high court.
“The court has found that there was absolutely no evidence against him (Hafiz), it is a fit case for awarding costs of litigation as also to order payment of compensation for the confinement of the appellant for a period exceeding seven and a half years without any evidence to prove his guilt,” the bench said.
“As a token of compensation for the injustice done to the appellant, we order that the State shall pay ₹one lakh to the appellant towards compensation for the period spent by him in custody,” the court added.
Hafiz Khan, a resident of Risia police station under Bahraich district, was married to Saira Bano on May 11, 2016. Shabana, the sister of the deceased, lodged a complaint at Risia police station on January 15, 2017, alleging that her sister was being tortured for dowry and was missing from her husband’s house.
Later on a tip-off, cops recovered a body from a graveyard and claimed that it was of Saira Bano. However, family members of the deceased denied that the body was of Saira Bano. During the hearing of the case, they also pointed out that Saira Bano was married to one Munna and not Hafiz.
Advocate Manoj Kumar Singh, who appeared before the court on behalf of the appellant (Hafiz), also apprised the court that Munna falsely implicated Hafiz in the case.
Singh also apprised the court that cops got a thumb impression of family members of the deceased on the complaint letter without reading out its content to them. They could not make out what was written in the complaint letter, said Singh.
