New Delhi, February 17 The Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned the conviction and life sentence of a man accused of murdering his six-year-old stepdaughter, citing a "flawed investigation" and the prosecution's failure to establish a complete chain of circumstantial evidence.
In a rare commendation, a bench comprising Justices K Vinod Chandran and Sanjay Kumar praised lawyer Ankita Sharma, who represented the prosecution, for her "meticulous preparation" and "astute advocacy" despite major flaws in the investigation.
"We cannot but appreciate the Government Advocate for undertaking the exercise of preparing, for our perusal, a paper-book containing the entire records, both in the vernacular and in translation," the bench noted.
However, the top court severely criticised the Chhattisgarh Police for the "flawed investigation" that left many questions unanswered in the murder case of a six-year-old girl, where the real culprits went unpunished and her stepfather was incarcerated based on "mere conjectures."
"We cannot but observe that if the investigation had been half as good as the preparation of the State Counsel, the mystery surrounding the disappearance and death of the poor child could have been resolved. We also appreciate the efforts made by the learned Senior Counsel for the appellant in probing the State to effectively bring forth the inept handling of the investigation," Justice Chandran, who authored the judgment, said.
The verdict allowed the appeal of Rohit Jangde, who had been incarcerated following a conviction by a trial court in Chhattisgarh, which was later affirmed by the high court.
"The appeal is allowed. The order of the trial court convicting the accused and that of the high court affirming the same are set aside. The accused shall be released forthwith, if not wanted in any other case," it ordered.
The case dates back to October 2018 in Chhattisgarh's Kabirdhan district. According to the prosecution, a quarrel broke out between Rohit Jangde and his second wife on October 5, 2018.
Following the assault, the wife left for her parents' home.
It was alleged that Jangde then took his stepdaughter away on a motorcycle.
The child went missing, but a formal complaint was only filed on October 11.
Subsequently, based on an alleged confession by the accused, police recovered charred remains and ashes from a field, and a skull and teeth wrapped in a saree from a nearby canal.
While DNA from the teeth and vertebrae matched the biological parents, the skull did not.
The top court expressed sharp criticism of the police handling of the case.
The verdict noted "clear interpolation" in the police records regarding the date and time of the accused's arrest.
While the prosecution claimed the accused was arrested on October 13, 2018, defense records and an additional affidavit suggested he had been in police custody or judicial remand as early as October 6 following the initial assault on his wife.
"The interpolation on the date is very clear from the documents produced, which raises a reasonable doubt as to the arrest of the accused... seriously hampering the last seen theory," the verdict said.
It rejected the "last seen together" theory propounded by a neighbour and found it "strange" that despite the family and police knowing the child was with the accused as early as October 5, no missing person report was filed for nearly a week.
The verdict noted that the timeline provided by the neighbour was inconsistent with the actual events and the period the accused was already in police custody.