HC clean chit to trio sentenced to life by lower court

The Bombay High Court Tuesday acquitted three men from the city who had been sentenced to

life imprisonment by a sessions court in a murder case. A bench of Justices B P Dharmadhikari and S K Shinde

set free Irappa Dhangar, Irfan Shaikh and Balu Chavan. The lower court had sentenced them to life in prison

in 2014 for causing the death of one person and injuring another following a dispute.

The high court, however, set aside their conviction holding that the police investigation and the evidence

produced by the prosecution were riddled with inconsistencies. The three were accused of attacking two men, Ashok and Sakharam, with iron rods, swords and cement tiles in November 2011.

While Sakharam survived the attack, Ashok succumbed to injuries two months later. The police had claimed to have recovered the weapons

used in the crime from the three accused. But the high court noted that the investigators failed to record the statements

of eyewitnesses who had rushed the victims to the hospital. It also noted that one of the main prosecution witnesses had been drunk when his testimony was recorded.

The police made several modifications and overwrote many entries in its records, the HC noted.

The material on record "created serious doubt on the version of the prosecution", the division bench said, adding

that the convicts be "set free immediately".

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