Odisha Man To Walk Free After 14 Years In Jail For Wife’s Murder; Weak Evidence, Says HC

Cuttack: A murder convict, Kharjim Bandhu (43), was acquitted by Orissa High Court after serving 14 years in jail due to weak circumstantial evidence.

The court also acquitted his father Kharjim Lachhna Rao (71), who was sentenced to imprisonment for life in the murder case. Rao was, however, granted bail over 8 years back.

The duo was convicted of killing Kharjim Kumari, Bandhu’s wife, in 2008. The victim had gone missing from Sunki in Pottangi on June 2 in 2008. Rao and Bandhu were arrested a month later, when human bones and clothing fragments of the 25-year-old woman were found near a jungle. The Fast Track Court of Additional Sessions Judge, Jeypore, then sentenced them to imprisonment for life.

The duo had filed a jail criminal appeal in the High Court on December 24, 2010, challenging the lower court verdict.

While quashing the conviction order, Justices SK Sahoo and Chittaranjan Dash observed that the evidence presented in the case did not bring about a nexus between the criminal and the crime. The bones were also not conclusively identified, according to the HC. The court also found inconsistencies in the forensic findings.

“The prosecution has not established the appellants’ guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and these shortcomings provide a strong basis for arguing that the Appellants should be acquitted due to the failure to meet the burden of proof required by law,” the bench ruled.