Thane court acquits man in wife's murder case over lack of proof

Thane, Jan 5 (PTI) A Thane court has acquitted a 32-year-old man accused of murdering his wife in 2021, noting that the prosecution failed to prove "foundational facts" necessary to establish guilt in a case based on circumstantial evidence.

Principal District and Sessions Judge SB Agrawal, in his judgment on Saturday, said it is incumbent on the prosecution to prove each and every fact that forms a link in the chain of circumstance "which leads only to the hypothesis that is in consonance with guilt of the accused, ruling out any reasonable possibility of his innocence." The prosecution alleged that on May 9, 2021, Shan Mohammad Shabid Ali Khan murdered his fourth wife, Arfa Khan, at their residence in Daighar in Maharashtra's Thane district.

The alleged motive was Khan's suspicion that his wife was having an extramarital affair. It was alleged that he banged her head against the bathroom floor, causing fatal head injuries and facial fractures.

Some neighbours found Arfa lying in a pool of blood with her two-year-old child crying over her body.

Khan was charged under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code and has been in jail since June 9, 2021.

While the victim's medical reports confirmed a homicidal death, the court acquitted the accused due to the lack of a "complete and unbroken chain" connecting him to the act.

The judge in his order said, "Solely on the basis of non-discharge of burden under Section 106 of the Indian Evidence Act, guilt cannot be brought about against the accused... it is incumbent on the prosecution to bring about foundational facts and it is the prosecution which has to stand on its own leg." The court noted that a rolling board allegedly used in the assault was recovered only later, despite a thorough spot panchanama on the day of the incident.

"As far as the rolling board is concerned, it is to be noted that on the very date of the incident, the spot panchanama was prepared and went on for about an hour and there is no explanation coming forward as to why blood stains on the rolling board were not found on that day," it said.

The court also observed that key witnesses did not place the accused at the scene at the time of the murder.

Concluding that the prosecution failed to prove the guilt of the accused beyond a reasonable doubt, the court acquitted him and ordered his immediate release from jail. PTI COR GK