HC cancels death penalty, acquits 5 murder accused

Jabalpur, Apr 28 (UNI) The Madhya Pradesh High Court has turned down a lower court judgement awarding death sentence to five accused in the murder of six members of a diamond merchant's family at Panna, and acquitted all accused granting them benefit of doubt.

While directing the police to re-investigate the case and to ensure that the real culprits were brought to book, a division bench of Justice Shravan Kumar Jha and Justice Sushma Shrivastava yesterday rejected the prosecution contention that the five were made accused on the basis of circumstantial evidence.

The appeal was filed by Sameer, Kishore Singh, Suresh Kumar, Mumtaz Khan and Idris Mohammad against Panna sessions court's March 27, 2006 order awarding them death penalty and acquitting another accused Mustaffin.

According to the prosecution, prominent diamond merchant Mahesh Kumar Jadia and five female members of his family were brutally murdered in their house on the night of August 21, 1997. The accused made their entry into the house for theft, it said.

UNI