MP HC acquits man sentenced to life imprisonment in rape, murder case

Indore, Aug 26: The Madhya Pradesh High Court has acquitted a man 10 years after he was sentenced to life imprisonment for raping and killing a woman, while observing that the investigating officer in the case had slept over the forensics report.

The Indore bench of Justices Subodh Abhyankar and Satyendra Kumar Singh on Wednesday acquitted the man from Dhar district, while hearing an appeal against his conviction by a fast track court in 2012.

“It is inconceivable that after recovering the hair of an accused from the deceased's hands, and despite the specific observation by the scientific officer that DNA is necessary for the confirmation of the matching the hair seized and that of the appellant, no efforts were made by the investigating officer to get the DNA profiling done," the court said.

This has led to sheer injustice, not only to the appellant, but also to the deceased whose culprit was never caught or has walked free today by the order of the court, the bench observed. "It appears that after arresting the appellant and completing the formalities of collecting the evidence, the investigating officer has literally slept over the forensic reports," the court said.

According to the prosecution, the man was charged for allegedly raping and killing a woman in a field in Dhar in 2011. The applicant counsel contended that his client had been falsely implicated and arrested, and the prosecution has failed to piece together the circumstantial evidence in the case.