Allahabad HC Acquits Man Accused Of Killing His Wife; Directs State To Pay Him ₹1L Compensation As He Suffered 7.5 Years In Jail
|The Allahabad High Court acquitted a man accused of killing his wife, saying that the prosecution failed to produce any evidence to prove the guilt of the accused.
The Court also directed the State to pay Rs.1,00,000/- to him towards compensation for the period spent by him in custody.
The Lucknow Bench was dealing with a criminal appeal filed under Section 374(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), challenging the validity of the judgment of the Trial Court.
A Division Bench of Justice Attau Rahman Masoodi and Justice Subhash Vidyarthi said, “In none of the judgments relied upon by the learned trial Court the accused was held guilty in spite of the prosecution having failed to adduce any evidence to establish his guilt and all the matters, the Hon’ble Supreme Court came to conclusion that the accused person’s guilt was proved by relevant and admissible evidence, which is not the case here. Therefore, the principles laid down in the judgments referred by the learned trial Court would not apply to the facts and circumstances of the present case, where the prosecution has failed to produce any evidence to prove the guilt of the accused – appellant.”
Advocate Indu Prakash Singh appeared for the appellant/accused while Additional Government Advocate (AGA) R.S. Dwivedi appeared for the respondent/State.
As per the prosecution case, in the year 2017, the informant had given a written complaint to the Station House Officer (SHO) stating that her sister got married to the accused and merely after a few days of marriage, her sister informed her telephonically that the accused, his mother, her maternal aunt, and his grandfather used to beat her for demanding dowry. Thereafter, the informant took her sister to her home, and after some days, the accused visited her home and apologized for his fault and assured that such things would not recur. However, it was alleged that they started beating and harassing her again for dowry. The informant tried to contact her sister through phone, but her phone was switched off. She went to her sister’s home where all the aforesaid four accused persons abused and threatened her and they turned her out of their home. The informant expressed a suspicion that the aforesaid four persons had made her sister disappear for demanding dowry. The Investigating Officer claimed that some informer told him that the accused killed his wife and had buried the dead body in the grave. Resultantly, the accused was taken into the custody.
The Trial Court held him guilty of committing offences under Sections 302 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sentenced him to undergo simple imprisonment for life along with a fine of Rs. 50,000/-. Being aggrieved, the accused was before the High Court.
The High Court in view of the above facts observed, “… we are of the considered view that the judgment and order passed by the learned trial Court is unsustainable in law and it is liable to be set aside.”
The Court noted that the appellant is languishing in jail and hence, directed him to be released forthwith unless he is wanted in any other case, subject to the condition that he shall file a personal bond and two sureties within a period of three weeks from the date of his release from custody, to the satisfaction of the Trial Court.
“The appellant was taken into custody soon after lodging of the F.I.R. on 15.01.2017 and he continues to remain in custody till date. Now that this Court has found that there was absolutely no evidence against him, it is a fit case for awarding costs of litigation as also to order payment of compensation for the confinement of the appellant for a period exceeding 7½ years without any evidence to prove his guilt cannot be fully compensated in terms of money but as a token of compensation for the injustice done to the appellant, we order that the State shall pay Rs.1,00,000/- to the appellant towards compensation for the period spent by him in custody”, it added.
Accordingly, the High Court allowed the appeal and acquitted the accused of all charges.
Cause Title- Hafeez Khan v. State of U.P. (Neutral Citation: 2024:AHC-LKO:63452-DB)
Appearance:
Appellant: Advocates Indu Prakash Singh, Manoj Kumar Singh, Arvind Kumar, Rakesh Kumar Tripathi, and Vishwa Nath Singh.
Respondent: AGA R.S. Dwivedi