Father acquitted of charge of murdering daughter

A man facing trial for allegedly killing his daughter has been set free by a Delhi court after his wife and son turned hostile.
Additional Sessions Judge Rajesh Kumar Goel acquitted Bihar native Fudur Bhagat of the charge of murdering his daughter whose body was found last year in the fields near Narela here.
"I find that the prosecution has failed to prove the offence against the accused beyond shadow of doubt. Thus, I am left with no option but to acquit him," the judge said, while noting that the wife and son of Bhagat had turned "hostile" and resiled from their statements that he had killed the girl.

According to the prosecution, Bhagat's wife had lodged a complaint against him after their daughter's body was found in the fields near their residence in north-west Delhi on the morning of June 24, 2013.
She had told the police that her daughter was not mentally fit and used to go out of the house often without informing anyone due to which Bhagat used to remain angry with her and beat her regularly, it said.
It added that on the intervening night of June 23-24 last year, when everyone was asleep, Bhagat strangulated the girl and dumped her body in the fields nearby where he used to work. He was arrested the same day.

However, in their cross examination in the court, the woman and her son did not support the prosecution case and said the girl was mentally fit and was killed by some unidentified men and not by Bhagat.