New Delhi: The Supreme Court has acquitted
two persons sentenced to death in a murder case in Madhya
Pradesh saying their conviction was based solely on
circumstantial evidence which was not probed beyond doubt.
A bench of Justices G S Singhvi and Asok Kumar Ganguly
acquitted Musheer Khan and Basant Shiva Bhai Jadav while
reversing the death sentence imposed on them by a sessions
court in Jabalpur and affirmed by Madhya Pradesh High Court.
According to the prosecution, the duo, said to be
contract killers, shot dead Mallu Bhaiya on November 29, 2000
at the alleged instance of three persons Shambhu, Sapna, wife
of Sambhu, and Sattanarayan due to previous enmity.
Though there were no eye witnesses to the crime, the
sessions court convicted all the five accused for the murder
on the basis of certain circumstantial evidence.
While Musheer Khan and Basant Shiva Bhai Jadav were
sentenced to death, the other three were sentenced to life
imprisonment.
Madhya Pradesh High Court, while confirming the death
sentence on the duo, however, acquitted the other accused.
The two convicts then appealed in the apex court.
The apex court, on perusal of the records, noted that
the conviction was based solely on circumstantial evidence
which was not proved beyond doubt.
-PTI
First Published: Thursday, January 28, 2010, 21:46