The Allahabad High Court has acquitted a former soldier who was serving life imprisonment in the murder case that took place 41 years ago in Badaun, Uttar Pradesh. In this murder case that took place in 1982, the Sessions Court of Badaun had convicted the former soldier in 1983 and sentenced him to life imprisonment. Since then, after spending a few days in jail, the former soldier who was out on bail has now got justice from the High Court. The case was heard in the High Court in the division bench of Justice Siddharth Verma and Justice Ram Manohar Narayan Mishra.
During this hearing, contradictions were found in the statements of the prosecution witnesses. Due to different statements of witnesses and discrepancies in these statements, the High Court overturned the decision of the Lower Court. The High Court said that the testimony of the government witness cannot be trusted much. There were a lot of inconsistencies in the statements of the prosecution witnesses. This incident is of 6th July 1982. That day, a person named Phool Singh, resident of Wazirganj, was murdered in Badayu.
Error in eyewitness statement
Phool Singh’s brother Shodan Singh had lodged a complaint with the police in this regard, suspecting former soldier Murari Lal of murder. After this, while hearing the case, the Lower Court found Murarilal guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment. Then when the matter came to the High Court, the testimony of the witnesses came under doubt. Actually, there was only one eyewitness to this incident, but his testimony was not matching with the statements of other witnesses.
The person who signed the Panchayatnama changed his statement
In such a situation, the court did not consider his statement credible. Not only this, the person who signed the Panchayatnama also changed his statements. Similarly, when a witness said that the body was taken to the police station, many witnesses testified against it. While hearing the case, the High Court clearly said that the site plan of the incident itself is faulty. The court said that since the ex-serviceman is already on bail, there is no need for him to surrender for further action.
