High Court Overturns Soldier's 41-Year-Old Murder Conviction

Forty-one years after ex-soldier Murari Lal was sentenced to life for murder, the Allahabad High Court has overturned the ruling due to inconsistencies in witness testimonies. Siddhartha Varma and Ram Manohar Narayan Mishra's bench highlighted significant contradictions among key witnesses, leading to the acquittal of Lal, who was previously out on bail.

Forty-one years after a former soldier received a life sentence for murder, the Allahabad High Court has overturned the judgment, citing contradictions in witness statements.

A bench comprising Justices Siddhartha Varma and Ram Manohar Narayan Mishra accepted the petition of Murari Lal, who had been out on bail.

The FIR, filed on July 6, 1982, alleged Murari Lal had fatally shot Pool Singh with his licensed gun as Singh was traveling from his village to Wazeerganj.

In May 1983, a Badaun sessions court had convicted Murari under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, sentencing him to life imprisonment.

The high court noted glaring contradictions in prosecution witness statements, significantly those of the first and fourth witnesses regarding the location of the dead body.

The court stated that the credibility of prosecution witness 2, the sole eye-witness, was not adequately corroborated by others, necessitating caution in examining such evidence, which was not done in this case.

In its judgment dated August 14, the court observed that contradictions in witness statements were indeed very glaring.

(With inputs from agencies.)