Kolkata: Observing there has been a “miscarriage of justice”, the Calcutta High Court acquitted a man in a 14-year-old case where he was convicted for culpable homicide.
The bench of Justice Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee was moved by the appellant (accused) challenging the trial court judgement which awarded him five years rigorous imprisonment for offence under Section 304 Part-II IPC. The de-facto complainant alleged that on November 15, 2011, owing to an old grudge, the accused hit his younger brother Kamal (victim) with a stick on the head. Once the victim fell on the ground, he was again physically assaulted, leading to severe injuries on his nose, mouth and in the chest. The hospital prescribed certain medical tests which couldn’t be done due to financial constraints. The victim was lying bedridden in his house without treatment where he died on November 20, 2011.
The court observed the elder brother later admitted during cross examination that he wasn’t present at the place of occurrence when the incident happened. Further, although initially he alleged his younger brother died due to the assault by the accused, later during trial said Kamal died because he was suffering from various ailments for a long period and without treatment. No FIR was lodged on the incident day but was lodged the day the victim died. The court observed that none of the other prosecution witnesses, including investigating officers, had any personal knowledge of the incident. Autopsy examiner had deposed that death was due to a diseased condition of brain and ante-mortem in nature. Victim had cerebral edema.
The court observed that wrongful conviction of the accused was “absolutely perverse and has caused complete miscarriage of justice”. “The basis of conviction that the appellant is 4th Dan Black Belt holder in karate and for which he might have pushed the victim and thereby the victim sustained fatal injury is absolutely ridiculous,” the court observed and acquitted the appellant.