Lucknow, April 7 The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday acquitted a man who had spent 11 years in prison after being convicted in a rape case involving a minor, citing serious shortcomings in the police investigation and a lack of reliable evidence.
A bench of justices Rajan Roy and Brij Raj Singh of the Lucknow bench of the high court allowed the appeal filed by Nirmal Kumar and overturned a 2018 trial court judgment that had sentenced him to life imprisonment.
The case dates back to 2010 in Ayodhya district, where a 14-year-old mentally challenged girl was allegedly raped. The girl died three days after the incident, following which her father lodged a first information report (FIR) accusing the appellant of rape and murder.
While the trial court had convicted the accused of rape and awarded life imprisonment, it had acquitted him of the murder charge due to a lack of clarity over the cause of death.
Re-examining the evidence, the high court found significant gaps in the prosecution's case. The bench noted that although forensic reports indicated the presence of human semen, there was no conclusive evidence linking the samples to the accused, as no DNA test or other scientific verification was conducted.
Terming this a serious flaw in the investigation, the court observed that convictions in criminal cases must be based on proof beyond a reasonable doubt and not on suspicion or assumptions, according to the order.
Holding that the prosecution failed to establish guilt with certainty, the bench overturned the conviction and ordered the immediate release of the appellant.
