The Supreme Court on Wednesday acquitted and set aside death penalty of one Akthar Ali convicted for rape causing death of a 7-year-old girl in 2014. The Court also acquitted co-accused Prem Pal Verma who was convicted for harbouring the offender. A bench of Justice Vikram Nath, Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Sandeep Mehta allowed the criminal appeals filed by the two accused against the Uttarakhand High Court’s October 18, 2019 judgment that upheld the conviction and death penalty.
“The law is well settled that in cases resting on circumstantial evidence, every link in the chain must be firmly and conclusively established, leaving no room for doubt. Where two views are possible, the one favourable to the accused must be adopted. In the instant case, the prosecution has failed to prove motive, the last seen theory stands contradicted, and the alleged scientific evidence is marred by inconsistencies and serious loopholes. In such circumstances, it would be wholly unsafe to uphold a conviction, much less the extreme penalty of death”, the Court observed.
Leave a Reply