HC acquits man, his mother of charges of killing family member

The Delhi High Court today acquitted a man and his mother of the charges of killing his sister-in-law at their residence here in 1995, saying the prosecution has failed to establish the chain of "incriminating circumstances" against them.
"No incriminating circumstance having been brought to our notice from the side of the prosecution during the course of hearing (appeal).
"We are of the view that the prosecution cannot be said to have been successful in establishing a chain of circumstances leading to the only conclusion that the present two accused-appellants (Bimla Devi and Anil Kumar) were the killers of the deceased," a bench of justices P K Bhasin and V P Vaish said.

Earlier, Deepak, the other son of Bimla Devi who had married deceased Farzana in 1995, and his friend Ram Gopal were acquitted by the trial court for want of evidence.
The state did not file appeals against their acquittals in the high court.
It was alleged that Deepak had repeatedly assaulted Farzana with an iron pistle (normally used to crush spices) on her head and she died on the spot on May 9, 1995

The trial court had, however, convicted Bimla Devi and Anil Kumar and awarded them rigorous life imprisonment for killing Farzana.
The High Court set aside the trial court verdict and allowed the appeals of the mother-son duo in the case.

As per the prosecution, Deepak had married Farzana, belonging to different religions, in February 1995 and was miffed with her as she was not living with him.
The victim had been saying that she will start living in her matrimonial home only after her elder sister gets married, the police had said.
"That attitude of the deceased became a cause of their relations becoming strained and that too to such an extent that the acquitted accused Deepak and his mother and brother Anil Kumar decided to get rid of Fazana by killing her," it had said.