Holding that the evidence fell short of nailing the accused in the crime, the Bombay High Court has acquitted a watchman who spent 14 years in jail on the charges of robbing and murdering an 80-year-old city doctor.
“It must not be lost sight of the fact that though the circumstances create strong and grave suspicion against the accused, they are not sufficient to bring home his guilt for the offences of robbery and murder,” said Justices V K Tahilramani and A R Joshi.
The bench also set aside the impugned order of conviction dated July 9, 2004, passed by a Mumbai Sessions Court and acquitted the accused, Santosh Pandey, of the offence punishable under Section 302 IPC (Murder).
“We are of the considered view that the evidence brought before the trial court was falling short of that standard which was required to establish the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt. In that event, the impugned judgement and order is required to be annulled and thus the appeal is required to be allowed,” the judges said.
The Court ordered the release of Santosh if he was not wanted in any other cases. It also ordered refund of any fines he had paid on the directions of the trial court.
The trial court had convicted two watchmen for the offences of robbery and murder. However, only one of them, Santosh, had filed an appeal against conviction.
The prosecution’s case was that on the intervening night of October 25 and 26, 1998, Dr Jehangir Vajifdar, then aged about 80, was found murdered at his house at Avabai Mansion on Henri road in Colaba area.
It was an offence of robbery with murder and various valuable articles, such as a Rolex wrist watch, tape recorder, camera, foreign currency, valued at more than Rs 2,75,000, were robbed from the flat. In the crime, knife was used as a weapon for killing Dr Vajifdar who was in the flat.
The prosecution said investigation had revealed that two watchmen of the building were absconding after the doctor’s murder and it was found that they had gone to native places. One police team arrested Omprakash from Rajasthan and the other nabbed Santosh from the city.
—PTI