SrinagarA sessions court here on Tuesday acquitted Zubair Nazir Mahajan who was accused of murdering his father, a renowned businessman of Srinagar in 2007.
1st Additional Sessions Judge Srinagar Naseer Ahmad Dar also acquitted Zubairs friend Suhail Ahmad Bhat Son of Mehraj-ud-Din Bhat of Rajouri Kadal Srinagar, observing that the prosecution failed to bring cogent and clinching evidence against them.
According to police, Nazir Ahmad Mahajan, a dealer of Kashmir handicrafts, was murdered in last week of September 2007 and his body recovered from a sack near Income Tax Office lane in Raj Bagh Srinagar.
It is well settled law that the prosecution cannot take the benefit of the weaknesses of the defence and they have to stand of their own legs and are legally bound to prove its case by producing strong evidence which leaves no room of doubt in finding the accused guilty, the court said, underling that burden to prove the case cannot shift upon the defence.
I am of the opinion that prosecution case fails for want of cogent and clinching evidence against the accused persons and consequently prosecution has failed to prove the charges against the accused persons, resultantly the point for determination is decided in negative and the charge sheet against the accused persons is dismissed, said the Judge and Subsequently acquitted both the accused from the charges levelled against them under RPC sections of 302 (murder),120-B (criminal conspiracy), 201(Causing disappearance of evidence of offence), 468(forgery), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 420 (cheating).
They are set at liberty in the open court, if they are not required by the police or any other agency in any other case, the court said. The accused were represented by noted criminal lawyer Mohammad Abdullah Pandit.
Addressing a presser soon after the incident, then senior superintendent of police had claimed that the businessman was murdered by his son with the help of his friend at his shop in KohnaKhan Dalgate.
The (accused) duo had kept a gunny bag ready in the shop in which Mahajans body was stuffed. At around 7 PM in the evening when everyone was watching the India-Pakistan Twenty 20 match, the duo disposed off Mahajans body in Raj Bagh, after which they returned home, the SSP had said.
Zubair even accompanied his family members when they went to lodge a missing report in police station Khanyar, he had added.