Anushka Sharma –
Published On: November 29, 2021 at 19:10 IST
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently acquitted two men who were sentenced to death last year for allegedly raping and murdering a home-alone widow in Tirunelveli in 2008. They were acquitted due to a lack of evidence.
According to the prosecution, a group of men invaded the victim’s home at 9.15 p.m. on September 29, 2008, and sexually abused her. According to the prosecution, they later strangled her to death and escaped with her money and jewelry.
In February of last year, the Kallidaikurichi police filed a case against six people, but only two of them – Vasantha Kumar alias Ganesan and Rajesh alias Rajeshkanna – were found guilty by the trial court. The court sentenced them to death and forwarded the case to the High Court Bench for confirmation, calling it a “rarest of rare case.”
However, a Bench of Justices V Bharathidasan and J Nisha Banu, who heard the case, noted that the police had supplied no substantial evidence against the duo other than the two suspects’ semen stains, which were detected on the victim’s garments, and the fingerprints recovered on the premises.
“Even the above two evidences do not prove that the duo raped and murdered the victim. That apart, the postmortem report does not indicate any sign of rape. It is unsafe to convict the duo solely based on scientific evidence,” the Judges said and acquitted the duo.