After 7 years in jail, Kolkata man acquitted of brother's murder

KOLKATA: A murder convict who spent seven years in jail was acquitted last month by Calcutta HC , which, after going through evidence, found serious lacunae in establishing beyond doubt that he had committed the crime.

The incident dates to April 23, 2015, when Kolkata resident Ranadip Banerjee , alias Rinku, was accused of murdering his elder brother, who suffered from a neurological disorder. A cousin of the two brothers, Joydeep Banerjee, had registered a case with Gariahat police station. In 2017, Ranadip was convicted of murder by a trial court under IPC Section 302 .

Ranadip challenged his conviction before a division bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Uday Kumar citing discrepancies and inconsistencies in evidence. "Chain of circumstances has been fabricated by police as per their whim and fancy in absence of any evidence to commission of offence whatsoever," his counsel stated.

The state's counsel contended that it had been established that the relationship between the brothers was bitter and the accused used to assault the victim. On the day of murder he caused injury to the victim and prevented him from receiving proper treatment, leading to his death.

However, after going through the case details, HC bench observed that while courts can ignore trivial inconsistencies, material contradictions are fatal and demolish a case that is based on circumstantial evidence due to failure to establish links.

The bench expressed surprise at the investigating officer not recording statements of immediate neighbours and tenants on the premises in which the crime was committed. It pointed out that while the prosecution had claimed that a blood-stained rod recovered from the room was the murder weapon, no forensic examination was conducted to ascertain if the blood on it matched that of the victim or whether the accused's fingerprints were present on it