India News | Patna HC Acquits Two Persons Awarded Death Sentence by Lower Court
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The Patna High Court on Saturday acquitted two persons who were awarded death sentence by a lower court for the kidnapping, gang-rape and murder of a minor girl in Bhojpur district of Bihar in 2018.
Patna, Jul 24 (PTI) The Patna High Court on Saturday acquitted two persons who were awarded death sentence by a lower court for the kidnapping, gang-rape and murder of a minor girl in Bhojpur district of Bihar in 2018.
A division bench comprising Justice Ashwani Kumar Singh and Arvind Srivastava set aside the orders of conviction and capital punishment passed in 2019 by Additional Sessions Judge cum Special Judge, POCSO Act, of Bhojpur district.
The bench was of the view that the prosecution “miserably failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt”.
The incident took place at a village in Barahara police station area in January 2018 when the 16-year-old girl went missing from her home and her body was recovered from nearby fields a few days later.
Her father filed a complaint with the police naming the two persons as accused.
The high court also expressed displeasure, upon perusal of facts of the case, over “inordinate and unexplained delay in lodging the FIR” and the probe being carried out in a “casual” manner pointing towards the investigating officer's failure to “inspect the place where the victim was allegedly killed and gang-raped”.
(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)