KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday acquitted two women who had spent seven years on death row after being convicted in the murder of a four-year-old girl under the Pocso Act.
A division bench of Justice Prasenjit Biswas and Justice Debangsu Basak overturned the Hooghly trial court’s 2017 verdict against Sagarika Pandit and Sushila Majhi, ordering their immediate release. The court ruled that the prosecution had failed to establish an “unbroken chain of circumstances” linking the accused to the crime.
“Suspicion cannot take the place of proof. There is a long distance between ‘may be true’ and ‘must be true’,” the bench observed, stressing that even a reasonable doubt must favour the accused.
The judges pointed out contradictions between the FIR, inquest report and witness testimonies. While the prosecution claimed the victim had gone out with her grandmother before being handed over to the accused, the records indicated she had left with her mother. This discrepancy, the bench said, broke the chain of circumstantial evidence.
The court further noted that forensic tests on bloodstained soil from the crime scene failed to establish if it belonged to the victim. It also declined to rely heavily on an alleged extra-judicial confession made by Pandit and another accused, Murari, while fleeing.
Finding no incriminating material against Majhi, and insufficient proof against Pandit, the bench set aside the death sentences.
