HC acquits man undergoing life term for murdering brother

A man, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by a trial court for murdering his brother following a quarrel, has been acquitted by the Delhi High Court which held that the prosecution has not satisfactorily proved the motive behind the crime.
A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and G P Mittal freed Bihar native Munna Pandit saying, "We do not think that in the facts of the present case, the onus by any stretch can be put on to Munna to explain and state how the deceased was murdered. This would be contrary to law."
"We do not think that in the facts of the present case last seen or missing link evidence theory relying upon Section 106 of the Evidence Act is applicable," the court said.

The court noted that Munna in his statement under Section 313 CrPC had stated he had very cordial relations with his brother and they were staying together.
"They did not have any argument or quarrel. He came to know about the murder of his brother through his roommates and they might have killed him," it noted.
The trial court had convicted and awarded the jail term to Munna after relying on evidence that the victim was last seen with him and he had ill-will against his brother.

While rejecting the plea of Munna that he had not murdered his brother Meghnath Pandit, the trial court had said when two persons are in a room and one of them is murdered, the other one needs to explain who killed the victim.

According to the prosecution, Meghnath was found dead on May 3, 2011 in his house in Bawana in Delhi where he was living with his brother and two other persons .
Few days before the incident, a quarrel had taken place between the brothers when Munna's son had died and he had asked for some money from Meghnath to go to his village which he had refused, it had said.
The police had said on the day of the incident, an argument took place between the two brothers and Munna killed Meghnath with a thick wooden stick.
He had lodged a false FIR with the police saying when he had gone for work, four-five men murdered his brother.

Munna had claimed that he had cordial relations with his brother and no argument had taken place between them and that his brother was murdered by the other two inmates.