New Delhi, A Delhi court has acquitted three men of attempt to murder charge in a 2018 stabbing case, saying that the prosecution failed to establish beyond reasonable doubt that they shared the intention to kill the victim.
The court, however, convicted the three Manoj, Manish and Puran of voluntarily causing hurt and wrongful restraint, holding that their participation in beating and restraining the injured man was proved through his testimony and medical evidence. A video showing Rajender holding a knife did not capture the assault, while the CCTV footage also failed to establish the actual stabbing or the participation of the accused in the incident. At the same time, the court found the evidence sufficient to prove that the three men had caught hold of, beaten and wrongfully restrained Singh.
It convicted them under sections 323 and 341 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code .
Additional Sessions Judge Muneesh Garg said the knife injuries were specifically attributed to co-accused Rajender, who died during the pendency of the trial, and there was no clear evidence that the three surviving accused used the knife or exhorted Rajender to inflict a fatal injury. The court also noted that the knife said to have been used in the attack was not recovered from any of the surviving accused. “It would be unsafe to infer beyond reasonable doubt that the surviving accused shared the intention or knowledge necessary for Section 307 IPC,” the court said.
In the order dated August 24, the court said, “In the present case, the medical evidence does not support the allegation of an attempt to cause death. The CCTV evidence also does not record the assault.
The court said that merely being present and participating in the beating could not automatically establish that the accused shared the requisite intention to commit murder.
