A man, who was accused of trying to kill a person by stabbing him, has been acquitted by a Delhi court which pulled up the police for conducting "tainted" investigation to "implicate the accused".
Additional Sessions Judge Hemani Malhotra absolved Bobby Gupta, a resident of Shahdara here, of the offence under section 307 (attempt to murder) of IPC, saying that there were contradictions in testimonies of prosecution witnesses.
"The contradictions which have come to light while sifting evidence to my mind are extremely material and antithetical to the case of the prosecution.
"The discrepancies not only shake the foundation of the case of the prosecution but also show how poor and unfair investigation was conducted by the police to implicate the accused," the judge said.
"The prosecution miserably failed to establish its case against the accused beyond the iota of doubt and that it shall be highly unsafe to rely upon the tainted investigation and material available on record to base conviction against Bobby Gupta. Accordingly, he is given benefit of doubt and he stands acquitted of the charge," the court said.
The court, while acquitting Bobby, also said, "As per the story of the prosecution, the blood sample of the injured was collected on the next day of the incident from the hospital where he was admitted, then how did it get deposited in the 'malkhana' on the previous day is rather mysterious and suspicious and clearly raises a doubt regarding genuineness of the incident as well as the investigation."
It noted that contradictions in the statements of the witnesses pertained to the time of the incident and number of persons present at the spot as claimed by victim Shambhu and Pappu, an eye witness.
It also relied on the medical report of Shambhu which opined that he had simple injuries and noted that the knife, allegedly used by the accused, could not be recovered.
According to the prosecution, on the afternoon of December 7, 2013, Shambhu, a vendor, was having lunch with a friend in a park near Kashmere Gate when Bobby came and started abusing him for not inviting him for lunch.
Bobby then took out a knife, saying he will "eliminate" Shambhu and stabbed him on his neck and fled from the spot, it had said, adding that an auto-driver came and took the injured to a hospital.
