Cuttack: Orissa High Court has given the benefit of doubt to four gang-rape convicts and acquitted them of the charges for which the trial court had sentenced them to undergo rigorous imprisonment.
The incident occurred on the early hours of April 6, 2009, at Bagdega within Bisra police limits in Sundargarh district. After registering a case, the police arrested four accused on April 10, 2009 and filed a chargesheet against them on August 6 the same year. A fast-track court of additional sessions judge, Rourkela, convicted the four and sentenced them to 12 years' rigorous imprisonment on November 25, 2009.
But, the accused challenged the trial court verdict by way of an appeal petition in the high court the same year. Their appeal had since languished in the court till it was allowed on October 12.
The high court felt the prosecution case was shaky, medical evidence did not corroborate the allegation and the chemical report was ineffectual as the wearing apparels of the survivor and accused persons had not been examined. To add to all this, a test-identification parade had also not been conducted to confirm the identity of the accused persons.
"When the very foundation of the prosecution case is shaky and surrounding circumstances, under which the offence is alleged to have been committed, appear to be a doubtful feature, the medical evidence runs contrary to the ocular testimony of the victim and when the prosecution case suffers from inherent improbabilities, I am of the view that the impugned judgment and order of conviction of the appellants passed by the learned trial court is not sustainable in the eye of law and benefit of doubt should be extended in favour of the appellants," the single-judge bench of Justice S.K. Sahoo ruled.
"In the result, the criminal appeal is allowed. The impugned judgment and order of conviction of the appellants for committing gang-rape and sentence passed there under is set aside and the appellants are acquitted of such charge," Justice Sahoo said in his order.
"The appellants - Bhiku Oram, Ghuran Oram, Bhutna Oram and Raswal Oram - who are in jail custody in connection with this case shall be released forthwith, if their detention is not otherwise required in any other case," Justice Sahoo specified in his order.
Obscene cuffs
The Government Railway Police on Monday arrested a youth from Odisha for allegedly indulging in an obscene act in front of a woman on a local train. The incident took place between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and Masjid Bunder railway station on October 21 when the woman was on her way to Belapur on a local train, said a senior official.