Kolkata, Aug. 5 -- The Calcutta High Court has acquitted two men convicted by a trial court in the 2014 Belda rape and murder of a minor, holding that the prosecution failed to establish a complete chain of circumstantial evidence linking them to the crime.

A Division Bench of Justice Arijit Banerjee and Justice Apurba Sinha Ray set aside the convictions of Sk. Rafijul alias Tutul and Ukil Ali, finding serious shortcomings in the prosecution's evidence.

According to the prosecution, a 16-year-old girl left home on October 11, 2014, after receiving a phone call from her friend, who allegedly handed her over to the accused in a Maruti van. Her body was found the following morning beside the Orissa Trunk Road in the Belda police station area of West Midnapore.

The Bench held that the prosecution had relied heavily on the alleged extra-judicial confession of the victim's juvenile friend, who was being tried separately. Such a confession, it observed, is a weak piece of evidence and cannot form the basis of conviction without reliable independent corroboration. The court also found that the alleged confession was made only after sustained questioning by family members and villagers, casting doubt on its voluntariness.

The court noted that no witness had seen the victim with the appellants or entering the Maruti van. It also found that the prosecution's "last seen" theory was weakened by improvements made by a key witness during trial. The alleged recovery of the victim's mobile phone was not properly proved, call detail records were not exhibited, and the forensic report remained inconclusive, with no DNA match linking the accused to the victim.

Holding that the chain of circumstances remained incomplete, the Bench acquitted both appellants and directed their immediate release unless required in any other case.

It also held that Ukil Ali was a juvenile at the time of the incident and that his trial before the sessions court was without jurisdiction.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.