A close associate of a Samajwadi Party leader has been absolved by a Delhi court in an alleged honour killing case in which a youth was abducted and killed in 2006 for having an affair with the niece of the politician.
Shailendra Singh was allegedly abducted and shot dead by Ghaziabad resident Adesh Chaudhary, an aide of SP leader Tejvir Singh, and others as his relationship with the niece of the leader was not approved by her family.
Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma gave benefit of doubt to Chaudhary on grounds including that the woman did not support the prosecution case and moreover, the police could not trace the body of the deceased.
The prosecution had alleged that Chaudhary had hatched a the conspiracy along with three other co-accused and killed Shailendra after abducting him.
While one accused had filed an appeal before the Supreme Court and was discharged from the case for want of evidence, the other two were declared juvenile at the time of offence and hence, their case was referred to Juvenile Justice Board.
The court, while acquitting Chaudhary, also said that the case was based on circumstantial evidence as there was no eyewitness or direct evidence to connect him to the crime.
"In the present case not only the chain of evidences is broken at the number of places, the prosecution has also miserably failed to show that accused has committed the murder of the deceased," the court said.
It also found vital discrepancies in the prosecution case including non-recovery of the body and star witnesses, including politician's niece, turning hostile to the prosecution case.
"The circumstances established by prosecution are not conclusive in nature and do not exclude every other possible hypothesis except the one that accused had committed the crime," it said.
The police had also alleged that Tejvir apprehended that deceased would grab his property after marrying his niece.
The case was being probed by the Special Cell of Delhi Police.
The accused persons were arrested and had disclosed that after abducting Shailendra, they had killed him by firing at him inside a moving car and later strangulated him, the police had said.
Adesh had, however, denied the allegations stating that he was falsely implicated.
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