Mumbai, May 19 -- A life convict who pushed his friend off a second-floor balcony in 2016 is set to walk out of jail after the Bombay High Court set aside his 2023 conviction for murder on May 7, observing that the recovery of articles in the case had become "extremely doubtful". The defence told the court that the prosecution had "manipulated the evidence" as three liquor bottles that were part of the evidence in the "murder" trial were manufactured in 2021, while the alleged incident occurred five years prior to that. Justices Sarang Kotwal and Sandesh Patil said that the prosecution had not produced the mobile phone that was allegedly seized at the behest of the accused, Janaradan Varma, and "had introduced three different bottles as is clear from the record". These circumstances, the court said, "do not help the prosecution". The judges, however, held Varma guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and handed him a seven-year jail sentence. Since Varma had already served nearly ten years in prison, the judges ordered his release. The incident dates back to July 22, 2016, when Varma and Vinodkumar Chaudhary met in Kalyan, in the house of a woman who was a waitress in a bar. Chaudhary was in an extra-marital relationship with the woman and he was upset with Varma who had allegedly told her to stay away from Chaudhary. Chaudhary and Varma got into an argument when Chaudhary allegedly made an objectionable comment about Varma's wife. Varma then pushed him off the balcony, and Chaudhry fell about 25 feet below, suffering a fatal head injury. A day later, an FIR was lodged at the Manpada police station and Varma was arrested for murder. Varma had claimed that he was falsely implicated by the police who were trying to shield the woman. In the course of the trial, in 2022, the liquor bottles that the police allegedly seized from the dustbin in the woman's house after arresting Varma were produced before the trial court. The manufacturing dates printed on their labels, the defence pointed out, were of September and October 2021. "Quite obviously the bottles were switched and they were not the original bottles seized from the spot," the defence argued. The High Court also noted that the assistant public prosecutor "could not explain as to why the liquor bottles seized during the investigation were switched with three different bottles which were produced in the court". The judges, however, noted that Varma's actions showed that he had no intention of killing Chaudhary. After the latter's fall, he rode Chaudhary's motorcycle to his relative's house and brought him to the site of the incident. He along with Chaudhary's relative and three others took Chaudhary to the hospital, although he died enroute. The court noted that Varma had no criminal antecedents and a seven-year jail sentence would meet the ends of justice....