A Delhi court has acquitted a woman and her alleged lover of charges of murdering her younger brother, who was purportedly opposing their relation.
Additional Sessions Judge Manoj Jain freed north-west Delhi resident Varun Chauhan and Navpreeta Kaur, sister of victim Tejyash, saying the prosecution has not been able to prove its case to the hilt.
The judge also said it was court's duty to ensure that mere suspicion does not take the place of legal proof.
"Distance between 'may be' and 'must be' is quite large and divides vague conjectures from sure conclusions. In a criminal case, the court has a solemn duty to ensure that mere conjectures or suspicion do not take the place of legal proof," the court said.
"The distance between 'may be' true and 'must be' true, must be covered by way of clear, cogent and unimpeachable evidence produced by the prosecution and, in the instant case, prosecution has not been able to cover such distance and has not been able to prove its case to the hilt," it added.
The court said the prosecution story was replete with infirmities and suspicions and all the links were not proved in the desired manner.
According to the prosecution, on July 22, 2014, Tejyash's mother found him lying in a pool of blood and called the police. He was taken a hospital where he was declared dead. Tejyash was preparing for class XII examination.
The parents suspected Chauhan, Kaur's friend who wanted to marry her, to be behind the murder as almost a month before the incident, he had allegedly threatened Tejyash for opposing their marriage.
The police had claimed that Chauhan had confessed to the crime and also said it was Navpreeta who had helped him enter the house to murder her brother.
During the trial, both the accused persons denied the allegations. Navpreeta said Chauhan was just a friend and she had no intentions to marry him.
The court also said "since the house was left unlocked and unattended, anyone could have gone inside for committing any offence.
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