HC acquits murder convict, grants benefit of doubt

Giving him the benefit of doubt in the absence of eyewitness to the crime, the Bombay High Court has acquitted a 26-year-old man of the charge of murdering another person seven years ago.
"There is no eyewitness in this matter and the case is based on circumstantial evidence. The only circumstance against appellant, Ravindra Kamble, is that there is recovery of blood stained knife and clothes at his instance," observed justices V K Tahilramani and S S Jadhav in a recent judgement.
According to prosecution, the blood-stained knife and clothes were sent to a chemical analyst and the articles were found to bear stains of the blood group of victim, Adesh.

"It is pertinent to note that under section 313 of CrPc, at the end of the trial, no question has been put to the appellant about finding of blood stains on the knife and the clothes recovered at his instance. Except the circumstance of recovery, there is no other credible and reliable material which connects the appellant with the crime," the bench noted.
As far as recovery of articles - knife and clothes - is concerned, no witness has identified that the very same knife was used by the appellant during the incident or that the very same clothes were worn by the appellant at that time, the judges observed.

The only way in which these articles are sought to be connected with the incident by the prosecution is that the blood stains of deceased were found on the knife and clothes recovered at the instance of the appellant, they noted.
"As stated earlier, question in relation to finding of blood stains has not been put to the appellant. In such case, the circumstance cannot be taken into consideration against the appellant," the bench remarked.