Thane court acquits absconding couple in 37-yr-old murder bid case; cites no witnesses, unreadable records

A court in Maharashtrarsquos Thane district has acquitted an absconding couple in a 37yearold attempt to murder case observing that the prolonged delay in the trial left the prosecution without witnesses and with severely damaged case records that had become unreadable reported PTIAdditional Sessions Judge P R Ashturkar of the Kalyan sessions court passed the order on Monday acquitting Lalitmohan Devendranath Duggal and his wife Rita Lalitmohan Duggal in the decadesold caseCouple accused in 1989 acid attack caseThe couple had been booked under Sections 307 attempt to murder and 34 common intention of the Indian Penal Code in connection with an alleged acid attack on their neighbour in Ulhasnagar on April 6 1989 reported PTIAccording to the prosecution the alleged attack stemmed from a dispute related to garbage disposal between neighboursThe murder case was initially registered by the Vitthalwadi police and later transferred from the district court to the Kalyan sessions court in 1996Case remained pending for nearly three decadesCourt records showed that the case remained pending for almost 30 years after the accused allegedly jumped bail and went abscondingActing on directions from the Bombay High Court to prioritise old pending matters the sessions court recently initiated proceedings against the missing accused by issuing a proclamation and recording formal police testimony under Section 299 of the Code of Criminal Procedure CrPC which permits recording evidence in the absence of absconding accused persons reported PTIThe court eventually delivered its final judgment on May 25Court cites missing witnesses and damaged recordsIn its order the court noted that the prosecution was unable to trace any of the witnesses connected to the case due to the passage of timeldquoConsidering the span of almost 37 years since the incident took place the prosecution must have lost trace of every single witnessrdquo the judge observedThe Thane court further stated that the condition of the records had deteriorated significantly over the years reported PTIldquoSo also as the record is very old it is very hard even to handle the pages All the documents are torn and cannot even be readrdquo the order statedThe prosecution failed to locate the complainant identified as Susan George Mike her relatives or any independent witnesses connected to the caseOnly police officer examined during trialThe only witness examined during the proceedings was police constable Gopal Jayram Savale who formally testified that none of the accused persons named in the chargesheet could be located reported PTIThe court noted that there was ldquoabsolutely nothing on recordrdquo to indicate the involvement or active participation of the accused in the alleged offenceJudge Ashturkar also pointed out that the whereabouts of the accused had remained unknown for more than three decades and there appeared to be no realistic possibility of tracing them in the near futureCourt says continuing trial would serve no purposeThe court observed that extending the proceedings any further would be futile as neither evidence nor witnesses were available anymoreldquoThere is no evidence against them No purpose would be served by keeping the matter lingering expecting the presence of the accused It would be a futile exercise without any outcomerdquo the court said while acquitting the couple reported PTIThe court also ordered the cancellation of the accused personsrsquo old bail bondsAdditionally it directed that the seized weapon in the case a knife be handed over to the District Magistrate for legal disposal in accordance with procedureWith inputs from PTI