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Death Penalty Convicts Acquitted by SC
In a criminal case established by Karnataka State Govt against accused Basavaraj, Yankappa, Ramesh and Palya, the Supreme Court gave its verdict on 23rd January 2019. The trial court of Karnataka had after confirmation from the High Court of Karnataka awarded death sentence to all the 4 accused. The convicted approached the Karnataka HC by way of appeal, however the HC of Karnataka confirmed their death sentence.
Accused however approached the Apex Court by way of Appeal. The matter was put up before a division bench on 23rd January 2019. The Division bench comprising of CJI Ranjan Gogoi, Justice L Nageswara Rao & recently appointed Justice Sanjiv Khanna gave their judgement in the case. The court acquitted 3 out of 4 convicts on the ground of lack of adequate evidence established by the prosecution with regards to identification of these accused persons & recovery of articles/items. The court also said the prosecution had failed to establish the real identity of the person who committed the crime.
The bench said where statement of the accused recorded by the Police leads to recovery of fact that the accused had thrown the looted items into the water tank, the prosecution was bound to prove/show as to how the recovery of the articles were made if such recovery is to be treated as evidence admissible under Section 27 of Indian Evidence Act, 1872.
However, for one of the accused Palya, the bench observed that on the basis of evidence of witnesses, the prosecution had succeeded in proving the case. However, the bench modified his death sentence to life imprisonment.
