The Punjab and Haryana high court has acquitted four persons who were awarded the death sentence by a Sonepat court in the rape and murder case of two minor migrant girls in the Kundli area in Sonepat district in August 2021.
However, the HC order came on their appeals and death penalty reference sent by the trial court for confirmation. The HC also found that the genetic material of none of the accused persons matched the vaginal swabs of the minor victims. Furthermore, the medical report did not find any injuries on the lips or mouths of the victims to prima facie demonstrate that the poison was forcibly administered. The victims’ brothers, who were sleeping on the roof of the house, also did not support the police version.
But on August 9, she complained to the police naming all the accused as the perpetrators of the rape and murder, and based on that complaint, a criminal case was registered. It was on November 24, 2023, a trial court had awarded death sentence to all the four accused.
The HC observed that after careful analysis of the entire evidence and the record, the picture that emerges is “hazy as to how these four persons were implicated, much worse given the death sentence”.
At the time of the crime, the two eldest brothers of the victim girls were sleeping on the roof. In all, the woman had five children. Both the victims and the accused are from different parts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
The court also took note of the statements of the brothers, aged 22 and 18, who were sleeping on the roof and had deposed, refusing to blame any of the four accused. “…the victims’ brothers were not children but were 22 and 18 years of age; still, they did not support the prosecution’s case and were declared hostile witnesses. Even when the public prosecutor put leading questions to them, they did not budge,” the court recorded.
