Thane court acquits accused in 2015 murder case

Thane, May 8 (PTI) A court in Maharashtra's Thane district has acquitted a 30-year-old man accused of murdering a person in 2015, citing contradictions in witness statements, a lack of credible evidence, and procedural lapses by the police.

Sessions judge S B Agrawal acquitted the accused, Vaibhav Bhagat, of charges under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code.

The order passed on May 5 was made available on Thursday.

As per the case details, Bhagat's deceased elder brother, a co-accused in the case, had called him during a drunken altercation with a local man in a slum near Diva on May 9, 2015, and the victim, Kishor Parmar, was attacked and killed.

According to the prosecution, Bhagat arrived at the scene with an iron spade and allegedly struck Parmar fatally on the head.

The only eyewitness in the case significantly retracted key parts of his testimony during cross-examination, admitting that the police had beaten him, held him overnight in custody and that he had filed the FIR at the behest of the police.

He also confessed that he had never seen the accused before the incident and first saw them during the court proceedings.

Other witnesses also did not support the prosecution or withdrew earlier statements.

The court noted that the medical officer had confirmed a homicidal death due to blunt trauma, but this alone was insufficient to link the accused conclusively to the crime.

Delivering his verdict, Judge Agrawal said, "Considering all the aforesaid circumstances, it cannot be said that the prosecution has been successful in bringing home the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt." PTI COR ARU