Court acquits 3 men accused of dacoity, murder

Calling police investigations in a case of murder-cum-dacoity a “shoddy piece of work”, a Delhi court on Tuesday acquitted three men accused of executing the crime.

Calling police investigations in a case of murder-cum-dacoity a “shoddy piece of work”, a Delhi court on Tuesday acquitted three men accused of executing the crime.

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The court said it appeared that the police could have manipulated a case against the accused.

On October 30, 2009, in east Patel Nagar, as one Rajinder Kaur was found murdered and her house ransacked. Police had said Badri Narayan Kamat, Lalit Kamat, Suraj Kamat with Rampreet and Shankar (both proclaimed offenders) had hatched a conspiracy to kill Kaur.

The prosecution had said the three had smothered the victim and then fled with foreign currency and other valuables from the house. The three accused had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

During the hearing, the additional sessions judge rubbished the police investigations and said there were discrepancies in the statements of the witnesses.

The judge said, “It does not seem plausible that after committing a serious offence of dacoity-cum-murder a person would keep the case property (dollars) in his pant pockets for months together.”

The court noted that the deceased’s husband, who is the complainant, could not identify the currency notes and the testimonies of the officials were not consistent.

The court also noted that according to the forensic report the fingerprints of the accused did not match with the ones found at the crime spot.

The prosecution relied on clinching evidence stating that the police also found a Nokia mobile phone belonging to the deceased woman with the accused. The court noted that police could not prove that the phone was recovered from the possession of the accused.