HC acquits two death convicts for want of evidence

Madhya Pradesh High Court has acquitted two persons, who were awarded capital punishment by a lower court for the murder of four members of a family in Balaghat in 2004, in the absence of sufficient evidence.
A division bench of Justice A K Shrivastava and Justice Vimla Jain yesterday observed that there were no proven evidences against Vivek Vithle and Sunil Vithle, who were convicted by a trial court earlier, and even circumstantial evidences against them were insufficient.
The case dates back to October 5, 2004 when Mukesh Namdeo, his wife Archana, daughter Asha and son Shivam were found buried in their house in Balaghat town's Prem Nagar area.

Police had registered a case of murder, dacoity and other relevant sections against Vivek Vithle, Sunil Vithle, Ramanlal Vithle and Sachin Sumendre and submitted the case for trial.
The district court on December 5, 2012 sentenced Vivek and Sunil to death while acquitting two others on the ground of lack of evidence against them.
Vivek and Sunil had challenged the judgement in the high court arguing that there is no proven evidence available against the duo.

Their counsels Satishchandra Datt and Manish Datt said the incident took place in September whereas the bodies were recovered on October 5.
The counsels also pointed out the DNA report submitted by police and also the circumstantial evidences were devoid of substance.

The bench accepted their argument that it was against the spirit of natural justice to prove someone guilty without any proper evidences and acquitted the duo on the ground of lack of evidence. The high court also expressed displeasure over the investigation carried out by police in the matter.
The bench also said police booked the case against Vivek and Sunil without any sufficient evidence which resulted in the duo spending nine precious years of their life behind the bars.