Stepbrother, friends acquitted

S Shyam Prasad | NT

Bengaluru: A stepbrother and his two friends who were convicted for murder and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life have been acquitted by the High Court of Karnataka.

A division bench of Justice K Somashekar and Justice Rajesh Rai K overturned the order of the Trial Court after it found many inconsistencies in the prosecution case and said “We find that the entire evidence on record is found to be camouflaged, creating doubt in the mind of the Court whether the accused deserve conviction.”

The HC said that the Additional State Public Prosecutor had taken the court through the evidence and supported the judgment of the Trial Court.

But, “Though he has supported the said judgement, the evidence which finds place on record must be cogent, consistent and there must be sound and justifiable reason to convict the accused.”

Mohan Kumar, the accused number one and his friend Manjunatha, a cab driver and accused number two in the case, approached the High Court in 2017 against the order of the Sessions Court in Anekal which had found them guilty of the murder of Ravishankar, the stepbrother of Mohan Kumar.

Another convict, Harisha, had not filed an appeal. The HC heard both the appeals of Kumar and Manjunatha and gave a common judgement. Rajamma, the mother of the deceased Ravishankar had filed the complaint with the police in September 2013 that her son was missing.

Her son by another husband, Mohan Kumar was arrested by the police in connection with the crime. Based on his confession, two of his friends were also arrested. The prosecution case was that there was a dispute over the property between the two stepbrothers which led to Kumar murdering Ravishankar with the help of his friends and disposing of the body in a eucalyptus grove.

Though the Trial Court convicted the three accused, the HC found many inconsistencies. The nylon rope allegedly used to strangulate the victim was never recovered.

The lastseen theory that Ravishankar was last seen with the accused was not proved by the prosecution. A skeleton said to be belonging to Ravishankar was collected from the grove but no DNA analysis was conducted on it to identify whether it belonged to Ravishankar.

Several witnesses who were examined by the prosecution “did not withstand their statements relating to the contents in the First Information Report given by the complainant,” the HC noted.

The Bench said that “If doubt arises in the mind of the Court and mitigating circumstances arise, it must be accrued in favour of the accused alone. In the instant case, the Trial Court has misdirected and misread the evidence on record and has convicted the accused persons.

Hence, the judgement of the Trial Court calls for interference in these appeals. If the same is not interfered, it would result in miscarriage of justice. Hence, we are of the opinion that the accused persons must be acquitted of the alleged offences.”