The Government should give compensation of Rs one lakh to the accused who was in custody for three and half years. The death sentence due to wrong investigation by the police has been cancelled by the High Court. The High Court has cancelled death sentence of an accused due to wrong investigation by Balaghat police. The division bench of Justice Vivek Agarwal and Justice Avnindra Kumar Singh said that police investigation was completely motivated by malice. In this case, the person who was made the accused has suffered the brunt of negligence of the police.

 

He has been in custody for three and a half years. Not only should he be released, but for this the Government should give him Rs 1 lakh as compensation. The bench has said that the Balaghat Superintendent of Police will be free to recover this amount from the investigating officer who conducted wrong investigation. The bench gave this decision on the appeal of Girdhari Sonavane (39) of Balaghat district. Girdhari was accused of kidnapping two girls aged 3 and 6 on April 4, 2022, first raping them and then killing them and throwing the bodies near the dam.

 

On January 31, 2024, the special court of Balaghat sentenced the accused to death. Challenging the decision, this appeal was filed in the High Court. During the final hearing on the case, the division bench, after looking at the statements of the main prosecution witness made by the police, said that there are many discrepancies in his statements. He had said in his statement that he had last seen both the girls going with the accused towards the dam on a golden colour motorcycle.

 

The bench said that when the investigating officer found this witness, then his statement was to be taken under Section 161 of the CrPC. Instead of doing so, the investigating officer waited for the body to be recovered and post-mortem report to come. When his statements were recorded after the PM report came, he told the colour of the motorcycle to be silver. Many more discrepancies came in the case, due to which the theory of last seen (last scene) got contaminated. The death sentence given to the accused cannot be confirmed on the basis of such evidence.