New Delhi, Apr 19 (PTI) Over 17 years after registration of an FIR against him, a court here has acquitted a man accused of making a hoax call to police claiming a bomb threat to the then prime minister Manmohan Singh on the Independence Day in 2005.

Metropolitan Magistrate Vipul Sandwar was hearing the case against the man who was charged with the offences under sections 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication) and 182 (false information, with intent to cause public servant to use his lawful power to the injury of another person) of the Indian Penal Code.

Also Read | Heatwave in Bihar: Primary Schools Closed for Three Days in Muzaffarpur From April 20-22 in Wake of Rising Temperature.

“...The prosecution has not been able to establish beyond reasonable doubt that accused Mahesh has committed offences under sections 182 and 507 of the IPC and is found not guilty in the present case…,” the magistrate said in the judgement passed last week.

He said the prime witness in the case, the PCO/STD booth owner Lalit Ahmed, was “unsettled” during his cross-examination and stated that he was not present in his PCO when the call was made.

Also Read | Hyderabad: Newly Opened US Consulate To Process Around Visa 3500 Applications per Day.

“Since prosecution witness 2 (Ahmed) was not present at the time when the call was made, anything deposed by him would be in the nature of hearsay and hence, not admissible.

"Accordingly, the prosecution has failed to prove the offence punishable under section 182 of the IPC,” the magistrate said.

The court said the evidence brought on record was insufficient to link the accused to the commission of the crime and the prosecution had failed to establish the identity of the accused as the person who had made the false call to the police.

“The prosecution has failed to establish that accused Mahesh was the person making the call from the PCO shop of PW2 and therefore, in the absence of identification of accused, the offence punishable under section 507 of the IPC is not proved,” it said.

According to the prosecution, Mahesh had dialled the police emergency number 100 from the PCO booth and given "false information" to the police on July 19, 2005 claiming bomb threat to the then prime minister on Independence Day.

The New Usmanpur police station subsequently registered the FIR and charges were framed against Mahesh in December 2010.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)