HC acquits man sentenced to life for killing wife

CUTTACK:  The Orissa High Court has acquitted a man, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Kalahandi district for murdering his wife in 2014, for lack of evidence. The two-judge bench of Justice SK Mishra and Justice BP Routray set aside the conviction and sentence order of the trial court, holding that there is no direct evidence against the man.

His conviction was a case of circumstantial evidence without any direct witness. “Except the circumstances that the appellant and the deceased are husband and wife and they were present in the house of the informant (brother of the deceased) at the time of occurrence, nothing more can be traced out from prosecution evidence,” the HC said in its order on Wednesday.

The bench directed that the petitioner be released if he is not required in any other case. The Court of Additional Sessions Judge, Bhawanipatna on January 21, 2016 held Uansu Majhi, a resident of Kesinga police station limits, guilty of killing his wife Kamle Majhi. He challenged the verdict in the HC by way of a Jail Criminal Appeal (JCRLA).

As per the prosecution case, Uansu had killed his wife on May 17, 2014. The bench in its order observed that the trial court judge had failed to properly analyse the evidence brought on record and had also based the conviction on purported extra judicial confession of the accused.

One of the prosecution witnesses had stated that the villagers were assaulting the appellant and out of fear, he confessed to have killed the deceased. The statement of the witness shows that the alleged confession of the appellant is involuntary and exerted through fear and pressure, the bench observed.