Mumbai, March 10 -- The Thane police's failure to handle scientific evidence as per rules has resulted in a life convict in a 2017 child sexual abuse and murder case being acquitted after nine years of imprisonment. Taking note of the police's failure to abide by the Maharashtra Police Manual while handling the accused's DNA and blood samples, the Bombay High Court last month said, "...the prosecution has miserably failed to prove as to how these samples were collected, preserved, and ultimately sent to forensic science laboratory (FSL)." The Manual lays down the procedure for packing, sealing and labelling of samples for forensic analysis in a crime. In the order made available on March 6, a division bench of Justices Sarang Kotwal and Sandesh Patil said the evidence against Mohammed Yunus Bashir Shah - charged with rape, murder and sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act - was "extremely doubtful". The case pertains to the alleged rape and murder of a four-year-old girl in Thane who was reported missing from her home on January 9. Her body was found under piles of garbage on January 12. Two days later, three men including Shah who were last seen with the girl were arrested while one absconded. Witnesses told the police that Shah and the other accused had bought chocolate and snacks for the girl at a local shop. Shah was the only accused to be convicted and handed a life term for rape and murder, while the two other accused were sentenced for four years for destruction of evidence. Before the court, Shah had denied committing the offence, and said that he was forced to admit his guilt by the police. He had a daughter of the same age as the victim and such a crime was against his natural instinct, he said, and conveyed his willingness to undergo a narco analysis test to prove his innocence. A doctor who carried out the post-mortem had told the sessions court that sexual assault and head injury were the probable causes of death. The High Court, however, noted that the doctor did not depose about taking vaginal or other swabs, though the post-mortem notes mentioned that swabs from the victim's body and blood were taken in eight sealed labeled bottles and handed over to an officer of Navghar police station. The most important part of the evidence against Shah was a DNA report that allegedly confirmed that the male genetic material found on the victim's genitals matched his. The High Court, however, said that the prosecution "did not take enough care to produce the DNA report on record through any witness". Shah's lawyer Aditya Bapat, appointed through the legal services authority, said that there was no connecting link between obtaining the swabs or the blood sample and handing it over to a police constable and taking it to the laboratory. There was a "strong possibility of tampering with the samples", the lawyer argued. The judges said that the 'last seen theory' also did not hold because Shah was known to the victim's father and he had often been seen by the witnesses with the child earlier. The victim's body was found 68 hours after she was last seen with Shah. "The time gap is too long, and therefore, the prosecution could not rule out the possibility of any person other than the accused being the author of the crime," the judges said....