Calcutta HC acquits second lifer in weeks

In the second such case this month, the Calcutta High Court Tuesday acquitted a lifer jailed in a murder case.

A division bench of the court set free Jagat Sarkar, a labourer, for want of evidence.

Justice Aniruddha Basu and Justice Shibshankar Sadhu ruled that there was no evidence to back up the charges for which Sarkar was adjudged guilty and sentenced to life by the Howrah additional sessions court in 2008.

Earlier, after spending 13 precious years of her life behind bars for conspiring to kill her husband, Aparajita Bose was acquitted Dec 4 by the Calcutta High Court.

"It is a matter of sorrow that a housewife had to spend 13 long years behind bars due to an incorrect lower court verdict," a bench of the Calcutta High Court had observed while ordering her acquittal.