'Witness hostile, identity not proved': 3 who confessed to 2017 murder acquitted by Gurgaon court

GURGAON: They surrendered before a court in 2018, later confessing to abducting and killing a 35-year-old driver months before. Then they led cops to the place where the body was burnt; bones and ashes were all the remains left. A pistol and a car were later recovered.
But a Gurgaon court on Wednesday acquitted the three accused of the charges, saying that investigators could not confirm the identity of the victim from the last remains. Witnesses, too, turned hostile during the trial and the accused argued they were being framed.
Other gaps - such as possible evidence not submitted - prompted the court of additional sessions judge Ved Prakash Sirohi to conclude that the prosecution "failed miserably to prove its case".
The case dates back to November 2, 2017, when Prem was last seen at a tea stall at Sohna Chowk around 6.30pm.
Prem's brother Kuldeep Singh filed an abduction complaint on November 4 after a tea vendor, Sahil, told cops three men forced the driver into their Eco car, which did not have a registration plate, and sped off. In his complaint, Kuldeep named three suspects - Karan Singh alias Habbu, Amit alias Dholu and Rajesh alias Dola, all residents of Tikli Badshapur village in Gurgaon - and an FIR was registered.
The suspects were absconding for months, until they surrendered before a city court on February 2, 2018.
They confessed to the cops that they had strangled Prem and burnt his body at a hillock in Tikli village. They also said they had opened fire at Prem's niece Pooja, police had said. The motive is unclear.
The accused eventually helped police recover bones and ashes from a hillock, and a pistol - allegedly used to fire at Pooja - in Tikli village. The Eco car, allegedly used in the abduction, was traced to Gujarat's Rajkot with their help.
Subsequently, Gurgaon cops added sections 302 (murder), 201 (destruction of evidence) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC, and provisions of the Arms Act to the original abduction case filed at the City Police Station.
Gurgaon police filed a chargesheet in November 2019. The accused have been out on bail since 2021.
During the trial, the tea seller and Kuldeep, who was the complainant, turned hostile. The accused also argued they were innocent.
The additional sessions judge noted that investigators could not link the last remains - bones and ashes - to Prem as the forensic report could not conclude a DNA match.
"... mere recovery of bones and ashes without proving the same to be of Prem is of no consequence," the order read.
"The witnesses did not support the case of prosecution. The prosecution even failed to prove Prem's death," DC Gupta, counsel for the accused, told TOI on Thursday.
The Eco car was found, but cops could not establish it was the same one used for the crime. The pistol, which was allegedly used to fire at Pooja could have been used as evidence, but it was never produced before court. Pooja was not brought to the witness stand either. "The prosecution miserably failed to prove its case against the accused. Therefore, the accused are acquitted of the charges levelled against them," the court said.
When asked, public prosecutor Ramnivas Yadav said all evidence provided by the police was produced before the court. "During trial, witnesses turned hostile and that weakened our case," he said.