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| Court acquits youth of murder | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Mar 13: A youth, who faced the charge of murder, was today acquitted by the court of second additional sessions judge, Jammu, terming the evidence in the case as "doubtful" and "tutored". Sham Lal was charged with the murder of Pooja Devi, a BA Part-I student, on May 31, 2005. According to the prosecution case, Pooja died of burns in the GMC Hospital under mysterious circumstances on May 31, 2005. Proceedings under section 174 of CrPC were initiated by the police. On June 8, 2005, ASI Charan Singh Charak recorded the statement of Pooja's mother Kamala Devi, who alleged that Sham Lal used to tease her daughter Pooja (20), a B.A Part-I student, on her way to college
and back home from the college. She said Pooja had told her several times that Sham had been teasing her and even threatening her of dire consequences in case she opposed her "advances". Kamla said on May 31, 2005, when she was returning home along with her cattle, she saw Sham running out of their house. As she moved closer, she saw smoke billowing out from their house and the adjoining shop, she added.
She said in the house, she found her daughter in flames. She told her that Sham had poured kerosene oil on her and set her ablaze, she claimed. She said when she raised alarm, neighbours came to their house and put off the fire. They later shifted her to GMC Hospital where she died the same day. On the basis of this statement, a case under sections 302 and 452 of RPC were registered against the accused.
After hearing lawyers of both sides, 2nd additional sessions judge Vinod Chatterji Koul observed that Pooja died because of burn injuries which she suffered on May 31, 2005 and the extent of burns was 96 per cent. The cause of death is thus not disputed. Now, the question is, if the accused responsible for Pooja's death.
The judge said the death took place on May 31, 2005 but no one spoke about Sham's alleged involvement till June 8, 2005. It has come in the evidence that statements in this regard were made to police only after a meeting of the 'biradhari' was held. It is claimed in the evidence that mother of the deceased was not having good health due to which she could not make any statement to police.
The investigating officer has stated that from the day of occurrence of the crime, he had been visiting the family but till June 8, 2005, he did not come to know about the involvement of accused. It appears that till June 8,2005 no one was aware about the involvement of accused in the alleged crime nor anybody has seen accused nor deceased had informed them about the involvement of accused and only after a meeting of the 'biradhari', statements were made against the accused.
The statements so made to the police after the lapse of about 8 days appear to be doubtful and tutored. Had deceased spoken to her mother and other witnesses, there was no reason for them for not disclosing the same to the police. Deceased had suffered 96 per cent burn injuries and her whole body, including lips and tongue, was almost burnt.
It was not possible for such person to make any statement. Dr Annyat Ullah, ex-professor and H O D of Forensic Medicine Medical College, Jammu, has stated that a person having sustained burns as mentioned would not be in a position to make such statement. The claim of the prosecution witnesses that deceased stated about the involvement of accused to them becomes doubtful. With these observations, court acquitted accused with the direction to release him from custody if he was not required in any other case.
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