Cops fail to prove theft case, men acquitted after 15-yr trial

Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen let off Delhi residents, Pawan and Amit, giving them the benefit of doubt in the theft case of December 1996, saying that a necklace and a pair of earrings, allegedly recovered from them, "were artificial and the same was not sufficient to raise any suspicion against them."

"In the considered opinion of this court, the prosecution fails to connect the articles allegedly recovered from the accused persons as the ones which were reported to have been stolen vide the present FIR," the court said.

"In the absence of any credible evidence regarding the identity of the articles, allegedly recovered from accused, as the ones which were stolen, this court is constrained to hold that the charge against the accused Pawan under section 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) of IPC is bound to collapse," the magistrate said.

The two accused were facing trial on the allegations that they had stolen the jewelleries of Delhi-resident Anand Vatolia on December 29, 1996. (More)