The Supreme Court on Wednesday acquitted a man sentenced to death on the charges of murdering and raping a six-year-old 10 years ago.
Justice V. Ramasubramanian, who authored the judgment for a three-judge Bench of Justices S. Abdul Nazeer and A.S. Bopanna, said the Uttar Pradesh Police framed the man in the case without "even a shred of evidence to prove his culpability".
The judgment registered its shock at how the sessions court and the Allahabad High Court chose to "completely overlook" the suspicious story of the prosecution side and sent an innocent man to the death row. Both the lower courts had found the man guilty of "exhibiting deviant behaviour and abnormal sexual urge", deserving the death penalty.
