Noida: After spending 12 years in jail over the alleged murder of a seven-year-old boy, a Hapur man is set to be released after a sessions court acquitted him of all charges on Oct 13, citing gaps in the prosecution’s evidence.Additional sessions judge Somprabha Mishra noted that there was no eyewitness to the murder and said that in a case based on circumstantial evidence, the circumstances must be so strongly linked that they leave no doubt that the crime was committed by the accused and no one else.“In the analysis of the evidence, the chain of circumstances presented by the prosecution is not connected, so it cannot be concluded that the accused was guilty by presuming his guilt. Thus, the prosecution’s case against the accused is found to be unproven,” the court held. It ordered the release of Rajendra Sharma from the district jail on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 30,000 and a surety of the same amount, as required under Section 437A of CrPC.The case is linked to an FIR registered on June 29, 2014, at Bisrakh police station. Habibpur resident Zahiruddin complained that his seven-year-old son, Gyasuddin, had gone out with Sharma, his brother-in-law, the previous evening and had not returned home. According to the complaint, villagers informed him the following morning that the boy’s body had been found in a drain near a pond, with injuries on his face and body. He suspected Sharma of killing his son.An FIR was registered under sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of IPC. After investigation, police filed a chargesheet, and the case was committed to the sessions court on Sept 8 that year. Charges were framed on Oct 13, which Sharma denied. He sought a trial.The prosecution examined eight witnesses, including Zahiruddin and an eyewitness, Rizwan. However, Rizwan told the court that he had not been present at the scene and had learnt about the incident on the phone. The prosecution subsequently declared him hostile. Zahiruddin also acknowledged that he had named Sharma on suspicion.The defence argued that Sharma had been falsely implicated following a family dispute. It said that Sharma’s brother, Dharmendra, had eloped with and married Seema, the complainant’s wife’s sister, against her family’s wishes. This led to a rift between Sharma and Zaheeruddin. The defence also cited the medical report, arguing that the injuries were on the same side of the child’s body and could have resulted from an accident.The court said the prosecution had failed to establish a motive or produce credible evidence linking Sharma to the murder. Citing Supreme Court in Vaibhav vs. State of Maharashtra (2025) and Prem Singh v. State of NCT Delhi (2023), the court said that while the absence of motive alone does not establish innocence, it becomes significant when a case relies entirely on circumstantial evidence.“In the present case, the prosecution has not presented any credible evidence to establish the existence of any prior enmity between the accused and the deceased or his family, or any other reason that would establish the accused’s motive for the murder of the deceased. Thus, the prosecution evidence does not establish the existence of a motive for the crime,” the court held, deciding to extend the benefit of the doubt to the accused and ordering his release from jail.
