Amravati murder case: Supreme Court sets free 13 from life-term

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has set free all 13 persons sentenced to life imprisonment by the Bombay High Court’s Nagpur Bench in the murder of Shamrao in village Jalka Shahapur in Amravati district in June 1995.

All of them were acquitted in 1988 by the additional sessions judge, Amravati, in the sessions trial, but the High Court reversed the acquittal order on December 21, 2013, awarding them life term and other punishments. The dispute arose over the deceased slapping a person for nonpayment of Rs 50 as a price for a fish that led to 16 persons armed with weapons reached his house, beat him up and then dragged to an agricultural field where his palm was severed. Police recovered his body as also the palm lying some distance away.

The Bench of Justices N V Ramana and S Abdul Nazeer on Thursday reversed the High Court verdict and restored the judgment of the trial court, allowing all appeals and discharging the bail bonds of the appellants. All of them had undergone three years of jail before coming out on bail. The Apex Court held that the prosecution had miserably failed to prove the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt, noting that the HC ought not to have interfered as there were no compelling reasons and substantial grounds.