New Delhi: A Delhi court has acquitted three men of charges of attempted murder, giving them the benefit of the doubt in a case related to the alleged shooting of a person during the construction of a house in the Jama Masjid area.
While acquitting the accused, additional sessions judge Ekta Gauba Mann said in the March 21 verdict that all the main prosecution witnesses, including the eyewitness who suffered a gunshot injury, turned hostile. An FIR was lodged at Jama Masjid police station in 2019 under the penal provisions of attempted murder and criminal intimidation and under the Arms Act.
The court was hearing the case against the three accused, who were charged with shooting and criminally intimidating the victim in Feb 2018.
The judge made a note during that the alleged recovery of a country-made pistol from one of the accused, there was no witness to it. All the prosecution witnesses, including victim Ata-Ur-Rehman, two eyewitnesses, and two public witnesses, turned hostile and did not support the prosecution’s case, the judge said.
“This fact erodes the credibility of the entire prosecution case and throws doubt on the prosecution story. No public person has been made a witness to the alleged recovery of the weapon. This fact further throws doubt on the prosecution story,” the court opined.
“Thus, the prosecution has miserably failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. There is no incriminating evidence against the accused. No specific role has been alleged against the accused. The identity of the accused is not proved. So, all these aforesaid facts throw doubt on the prosecution story. The benefit of doubt goes in favour of the accused,” the judge observed.
The court then acquitted the accused, Rijwan, Naushad alias Pahalwan, and Mohammed Iqbal Saifi.
