Srinagar- The High Court of J&K and Ladakh has acquitted a man, nearly twenty-two years after he was arrested for raping and murdering two minor sisters in Budgam district of Central Kashmir. The man, Kamal Jeet Singh alias Rinku, was subsequently convicted and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for life by trial court in 2016.
Allowing an appeal filed by Singh, a division bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Javed Iqbal Wani termed the prosecution case as “nothing more than a bundle of contradictions, omissions, speculations and conjectures.”
According to prosecution case, on 4-10-2002, a complainant was filed at Police Station Beerwah by resident of Atina Beerwah Budgam, stating that on 3-10-2002, his two minor granddaughters, aged six years and three years respectively, returned home from their school at 4 PM and thereafter, the children, wearing their school uniform went towards the local Gurudwara but did not return thereafter.
Subsequently, a search was conducted by the police, who were joined by the members of the Sikh and the Muslim community, which led to the discovery of the bodies of the two minors from the house of a migrant Sikh. The police took custody of the bodies and ultimately arrested the accused. The search of the scene of crime led to the recovery of a steel glass with mustard oil. Upon interrogation of the accused, police said that he confessed to the police of having committed the crime.
The prosecution also stated that accused enticed the girls and took them to the single storeyed house of a migrant who happen to be the uncle of the accused and there he committed rape on both the girls and thereafter murdered them by throttling.
The prosecution also stated that he brought mustard oil from his house in the absence of his family members in the steel glass and after committing the offence, he jumped from the attic of the house in the course of which he suffered injury on his right knee. Later, on 10-12-2016, the trial court in Budgam convicted and sentenced him to rigorous imprisonment for life and imposed a cumulative fine of Rs 75000. The convict later challenged the order of conviction and sentence before the High Court.
After hearing the counsel representing the accused and the government, the Division Bench of the court acquitted Singh.
“ ….the appellant (Singh) says that after he enticed the two girls to the SOC(Scene of crime), he went to his house to get the mustard oil and then came back to the SOC and committed the crime. This shows that there was no need for the appellant to jump from the attic, come back to the front door, lock it and then go home. If he had to lock the front door, he could have come out of it and then locked it, there was no need for him to jump out of the attic,” the DB said. Therefore, the DB said, the narrative of the prosecution that Singh jumped out of the attic after committing the offence is based solely on the disclosure of Singh u/s. 27 of the Evidence Act and it is “impermissible in law to use the disclosure statement beyond proving what was recovered at the behest of the accused.”
“Thus, in view of what has been argued, considered and held by this Court hereinabove, the prosecution’s case against the appellant is nothing more than a bundle of contradictions, omissions, speculations and conjectures and it has miserably failed to prove the case against the appellant beyond reasonable doubt,” the court said, adding, “Under the circumstances, the impugned judgement of conviction is set aside, and the appellant is acquitted of all charges. He shall be released forthwith.”
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