DB upholds acquittal in Kishtwar Woman’s murder case, dismisses state appeal
31/12/2025
JAMMU, Dec 30: The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh at Jammu has dismissed the State's acquittal appeal in the murder case titled State vs. Mehboob Hussain and others, thereby upholding the 2012 judgment of the Principal Sessions Judge, Kishtwar, which had acquitted the accused of charges under Sections 302/34/109 RPC.
The judgment was delivered by a Division Bench comprising Justice Sindhu Sharma and Justice Shahzad Azeem, which reiterated that in an appeal against acquittal, the appellate court should not ordinarily interfere where two views are possible, noting the "double presumption" of innocence in favour of the accused.
As per the prosecution story, the case arose from FIR No. 68/2005 registered on the basis of a written report by the deceased's brother, alleging that Mst. Wahida Begum was murdered on June 06, 2005, purportedly due to matrimonial discord and alleged instigation within the family.
However, while examining the evidence, the High Court noted serious gaps in the prosecution's chain of circumstances-holding that the motive was not proved, and the prosecution version suffered from inconsistencies.
The Bench further endorsed the trial court's conclusion that the alleged disclosure and recovery were unreliable, observing that the recovery memo lacked a date and the investigation record did not support the claimed recovery process.
On the "last seen" theory as well, the High Court held the prosecution failed to establish that the accused were last seen with the deceased immediately before the incident, noting that cited witnesses did not support the prosecution version.
Concluding that the essential links-motive, disclosure/recovery and last seen-were either unproved or seriously impaired, the Bench held the chain of circumstances was incomplete and upheld the acquittal, dismissing the appeal as devoid of merit.
The State was represented by Dy. AG Pawan Dev Singh, while the respondents were represented by Advocate Sandeep Gupta.
Share This Story |
|
Comment On This Story |
|
|
|
|