Pune: The court of special judge Kavita D Shirbhate on April 11 acquitted a casual worker (29) from Karnatakain the rape and murder case of a six-year-old girl, over seven years after he remained an undertrial.The court on April 11 cited multiple gaps in the prosecution’s case, holding that ‘the prosecution miserably failed to prove guilt of the accused beyond all reasonable doubt for want of oral as well as documentary evidence.’ There was ‘no specific and cogent evidence on record’ to conclude that the accused committed the crime, the court said.A six-year-old girl was found throttled to death in a three-wheeler tempo parked at Rajguru Chowk on Tadiwala Road on the evening of July 4, 2018. In the absence of an eyewitness, the police’s case was based on circumstantial evidence. The man was arrested July 7, 2018, after a couple of witnesses gave statements that the accused was seen around the tempo and that he had confessed to having throttled the girl to death. He has been in jail awaiting trail since his arrest.The Bund Garden police registered an FIR on July 6, 2018, based on a complaint by the girl’s mother and arrested the man on the following day. The police filed a chargesheet on Oct 4, 2018.The special judge held that the prosecution did not examine material witnesses like the girl’s parents and the witnesses before whom the accused made an extra-judicial confession.“There was nothing on record about who committed the offence with the victim and who had killed her. There was no evidence on record about the fingerprint of the accused on the person or neck of the victim. A DNA report of the viscera and other articles of the victim were not produced on record. There was no specific and cogent evidence on record to come to the conclusion that the accused committed the offence with the victim,” the judge observed.
