Court acquits absconding couple in 37-year-old murder bid case

Thane: A Thane court has acquitted an absconding couple in a 37‑year‑old attempt to murder case, noting the prolonged delay caused the prosecution to lose track of every witness, and that the case documents were damaged and unreadable.

There is absolutely nothing on record which would even remotely indicate the involvement and active participation of the accused in the case, Additional Sessions Judge P R Ashturkar of the Kalyan court said in the order on Monday while acquitting Lalitmohan Devendranath Duggal and his wife Rita Lalitmohan Duggal.

The couple was booked under sections 307 (attempt to murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly executing an acid attack on their neighbour following a dispute over garbage disposal at Ulhasnagar in Maharashtra's Thane district on April 6, 1989.

The case was transferred from the district court to the Kalyan sessions court in 1996 and remained pending for nearly three decades because the accused jumped bail and disappeared.

Acting on the high court directives to prioritise old matters, the sessions court recently published a proclamation against the absconding couple and recorded formal police testimony under Section 299 of the CrPC (allowing to record evidence in the absence of an absconding accused) before passing its final judgment on May 25.

"Needless to say, considering the span of almost 37 years since when the incident took place, the prosecution must have lost trace of every single witness. So also, as the record is very old, it is very hard even to handle the pages. All the documents are torn in condition and cannot be even read," the judge observed.

The prosecution's case collapsed after the Vitthalwadi police failed to locate the victim, Susan George Mike, her family members, or any independent spot panchas. The only individual examined in the entire trial was police constable Gopal Jayram Savale, who was the warrant serving officer and formally deposed that none of the chargesheeted individuals could be found.

Highlighting the futility of extending a trial where both the evidence and the parties have ceased to exist for the legal system, the judge said the accused have been missing for more than 30 years, and their whereabouts are not at all known to anyone. There is not even any remote chance that they could be found in the near future, it noted.

There is no evidence against them. No purpose would be served by keeping the matter lingering, expecting the presence of the accused. "It would be a futile exercise without any outcome. Hence, the accused are entitled for acquittal," the court said.

It ordered the cancellation of their decades-old bail bonds and directed that the seized weapon - a knife - be forwarded to the District Magistrate for legal disposal.