‘Prosecution not able to prove its case’: Delhi High Court acquits man accused of murdering daughter

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has set aside a trial court’s order convicting a man for murdering his daughter for allegedly having a love affair and sentencing him to life imprisonment, and acquitted the accused.

The man had challenged the trial court’s verdict, saying that the prosecution wasn’t successful in establishing the case against him.

The man was arrested for not giving convincing answers. According to the prosecution, his and his wife’s blood samples were taken and sent to Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), CBI for DNA profiling and matching them with the DNA of the deceased, and they had matched.

However, a vacation bench of Justice Mukta Gupta and Poonam A Bamba said: “This court finds that merely based on the DNA analysis evidence… opining that the dead body was of the biological daughter of the appellant, it cannot be held that the prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt against the appellant of having committed the murder of … punishable under Section 302 IPC as also offence punishable under Section 201 (destruction of evidence) IPC.”

The court then directed the man be released forthwith, if not required in any other case.

On May 10, 2013, as per the prosecution, police had received information about the recovery of a body packed in a gunny bag in a drain in the Mehrauli area. The remains were of a woman who could not be identified.

After the man claimed that he had killed his daughter and dumped the body in the drain as he was angry about her relationship with someone he did not approve of, a murder case was registered at Mehrauli Police Station.