Apex Court Acquits Death Row Prisoner

New Delhi: The Supreme Court had acquitted a death row prisoner who was convicted by a trial Court and Allahabad High Court for murdering own son and two of his brothers.

The case was heard by Justices BR Gavai, JB Pardiwala, and Prashant Kumar Mishra had ordered the immediate release of the convict from the Central Prison, Bareilly. The accused had allegedly burnt the deceased persons to death in 2014 after his second marriage was opposed by the deceased people. He was sentenced to death in 2017.

The Counsel representing the accused said tha the room in which the deceased people were present was closed from inside. As a result of this, there is no chance of the accused pouring any inflammable substance on them,

In 2018, the High Court had upheld the death sentence and the High Court had also dismissed the dying declaration of two deceased people which the accused alleged to be doctored. They also held that the fire was caused because of a short circuit.

Thus, the present appeal was done before the Supreme Court. Then the apex Court issued notice in this appeal and on 19 July, the judgment was reserved.

The execution was stayed by ex-CJI Uday Umesh Lalit and allowed for the psychological evaluation of the accused.

The accused was represented by Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Senior Advocate and he was briefed by the organization named Project 39-A