HYDERABAD: A division bench of the High Court has recently set aside the conviction and sentence imposed on the four accused persons in a double murder case, saying that the prosecution has failed to establish beyond reasonable doubt that the four convicts were responsible for the homicidal deaths of two persons (father and son) in Khammam district in the year 2007.
“This court finds that the prosecution’s case was fraught with inconsistencies and weaknesses, the fundamental defect being its failure to present the origin and genesis of the occurrence in its full and true form”, the bench pointed out.The bench of justices P V Sanjay Kumar and Shameem Akther was allowing an appeal by Konakala Jamalaiah, his wife Mangamma, and his sons Ramu and Koteswar Rao challenging the sentence awarded by the family judge-cum-additional sessions judge at Khammam in the case of the murder of M Seshulu and his son Venkata Satyanarayana.
As for the case details, Kalluru police charged Jamalaiah and his family members with killing Seshulu and his son on February 28, 2007 by attacking them with knives and crowbars after sprinkling chilli powder on them due to old rivalry. After conducting a trial, the lower court sentenced the four accused to life imprisonment in 2011. Aggrieved by it, they approached the High Court for relief.The bench pointed out that the eyewitnesses, on whose evidence the accused were convicted, were members of the family of the deceased and there were no independent witnesses in the case. The prosecution did not even offer an explanation for the injuries suffered by the accused, which must have been during or at the same time of the occurrence which led to the death of father and his son. Besides, there was political rivalry between the accused and the deceased, the bench noted.
Finding several lapses in the investigation, the bench pointed out that the accused also received severe injuries and were sent to the government hospital at Penuballi, but police did not say how they were injured. Besides, the doctor who conducted the post-mortem examination had categorically stated that he did not notice any chilli powder on any part of the bodies of the father-son duo as claimed by the police. The bench directed the appellants, who are on bail, to report to the superintendent of Warangal Central Prison for completion of the formalities.