GUWAHATI: Gauhati High Court has acquitted a man, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by a lower court in 2017 in a murder case that took place in Assam’s Jorhat in 2014 after the evidence was found inconclusive.
The bench of Justice Kalyan Rai Surana and Justice Malasri Nandi set aside the lower court’s judgment recently against Dhiren Majhi, the petitioner. “There was no corroboration of the evidence of prosecution witness Brijesh Majhi even though his statements before the magistrate at the time of recording his statement during investigation and before the trial court were identical to each other. He (Dhiren) shall be released forthwith if not required to be detained in connection with any other case,” it said.
Dhiren had allegedly killed a shopkeeper, Manikchand Sarma, in Jorhat’s Mariani on the night of September 22, 2014, following some persisting enmity. The body of the victim was recovered by the police the next morning after a few local residents, who had gone to the shop, found him dead inside.
Brijesh had deposed in his evidence before the court that Dhiren had met him at about 2 pm on the day of the incident and asked for his help to rob the shop at night. However, during cross questioning, Brijesh, who was a Class X student, said he was in school from 9 am to 2.30 pm that day and he accompanied Dhiren at night, but did not tell his uncle, with whom he used to live.
“It appears from the evidence of Brijesh that he used to stay along with his uncle and aunt but none of them was examined by the sessions court to confirm his alibi,” the court said.
Besides, the court said no other prosecution witness had supported the prosecution case by stating that they have knowledge regarding the presence of Brijesh in the victim’s grocery shop along with the Dhiren that night.
