New Delhi: A Delhi court has acquitted two men accused of murdering a 33-year-old Indian Air Force (IAF) staffer in 2014, holding that the circumstantial evidence was inadequate and failed to form a complete chain pointing to their guilt. Additional sessions judge Gurmohina Kaur was hearing the case against Brahm Prakash and Khajaan Singh, accused of killing the IAF staffer, Arun. According to the prosecution, on the intervening night of Dec 27–28, 2014, the two allegedly struck Arun multiple times on the head with a stone before running him over with a van. His body was later found near a DJB site in Dwarka. Initially treated as a road accident, the case was later investigated as murder. The prosecution also alleged that the accused tried to destroy evidence by discarding the victim’s mobile phone and washing bloodstains from the vehicle. An FIR was registered at Dwarka North police station, and charges were framed under various sections of Indian Penal Code, including murder. On Feb 5, the court said that suspicion alone could not justify conviction. “Merely on the basis of doubt of the family of the deceased, the accused cannot be convicted, especially when the circumstantial evidence is insufficient and does not form a complete chain of events leading to the inescapable conclusion of guilt,” the judge noted. Emphasising that the burden of proof lay on the prosecution, the court added, “Every accused is presumed innocent until proved guilty.” The court pointed to key gaps in the investigation, including the fact that the alleged weapon was never recovered and no evidence was collected to show when or where the tyres of the vehicle were washed.
