Noida: Three brothers accused of attempting to murder their cousin were acquitted by the additional district and sessions court after a trial spanning more than a decade, as all key eyewitnesses turned hostile and declined to support the prosecution’s case. The court said the identity and role of the accused could not be established beyond a reasonable doubt.The case was registered in April 2015 at Phase-II police station following a quarrel within an extended family over house construction and alleged encroachment in Gejha village, one that escalated from a family dispute into a violent assault and criminal case. The complaint, Adesh Tyagi, accused his uncle Satish Tyagi and his three sons — Sushil, Anil and Nitin — of attacking him with sticks and blunt objects following an argument the previous day over construction activity adjacent to their homes.Police registered a case under sections 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code, and later filed a chargesheet against all four accused. Charges were framed by the sessions court in Aug 2019. After Satish Tyagi died in 2024, his name was dropped from the case, leaving his three sons to stand trial.The prosecution examined seven witnesses, four of them cited as eyewitnesses. Among the eyewitnesses were Adesh’s father and brother, but both denied witnessing any fight or assault. The complainant’s brother, Rajesh, told the court that there were discussions within the family over construction on an adjoining plot, but denied witnessing any fight or assault. Adesh’s father, Jaiprakash, also disowned the prosecution’s case. He denied that his son had been attacked and claimed that the injuries were caused by construction material. Both witnesses were declared hostile by the prosecution.The case suffered a decisive blow when the complainant himself retracted his earlier statements. While during his initial examination on Sept 20, 2019, Adesh claimed he had been attacked by his cousins, he retracted from the version nearly three years later during cross-examination. He told the court that the injuries he sustained were not the result of an assault by the accused but were caused by a falling pole. He said police took him to a govt hospital, where he was treated and discharged, and described his injuries as minor. He further stated that his earlier statement had been made on the advice of his lawyer.According to his revised testimony, the dispute on the day of the incident was limited to a discussion about an extended balcony, which was resolved amicably without any physical confrontation.In his ruling, additional district and sessions judge Chandra Mohan Srivastava observed that the complainant failed to stand by the prosecution’s case and said that the prosecution had failedto meet the legal threshold required for conviction. “From the analysis of all the evidence presented, it is concluded that the prosecution failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the charges under IPC sections 308, 323, 504 and 506,” the court held, ordering the acquittal of the accused.
