Vadodara: Three years after Abhimanyu alias Abhi Patel was stabbed to death at Vishwas Colony in Alkapuri, the three accused were acquitted by local court on Wednesday for benefit of doubt.
The additional district judge H N Trivedi in the judgement criticized the investigating officers for a botched up probe in the case. The judgement listed out several reasons which give benefit of doubt to the three accused Pratik Singh, Gaurav Solanki and Jimil Patel.
The investigating officers – M V Patel, police sub-inspector, and later V V Vispute, police inspector – did not seal the CD of CCTV camera footage while producing it as an evidence in court. Besides, the police did not care to send the footage to the FSL to make the video clear, the court observed.
The t-shirt which Patel had worn had a hole due to stabbing, but it got lost by medical officer during treatment and the police did not make efforts to find it, the judgement read. ‘The police had taken call detail records of the complainant, eye-witnesses and the accused, but that was not produced in the court. The punchnama of the crime scene was also not done properly as there were variations in places where blood spots were found and those mentioned in the punchnama report,’ it added.
The police did not make one of the key witnesses go through identification parade of the accused. Blood samples were also not collected from the car in which Patel was taken to the hospital and the police also did not seize the car for investigation purposes, the court observed.
While acquitting the trio, the court mentioned that in a serious offence like this, when doubt arises the accused are entitled to benefit of doubt. All three of them were released against bail of Rs 10,000 each.
Patel, who used to work in his father’s transport business, was allegedly stabbed after he and Singh got into a verbal duel when the former was taking a walk with his friends in Vishwas colony around 1.45am on May 10, 2015. Patel had suffered deep injuries on his neck and lower back following which he collapsed. A day later Singh, who is son of the owner of a security agency, and his two friends Solanki and Jimil, who helped him to escape, were arrested.
“The accused had a criminal background and if he did not kill my son then who did? We trust the judiciary and will definitely challenge the judgement in the high court,” said Patel’s mother Monica Patel.
