Man accused of killing wife 22 years back set free by HC
Man accused of killing wife 22 years back set free by HC
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Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has acquitted a man who was sentenced to life in jail for the murder of his wife 22 years ago.
According to the case, Saria, the wife of Jayaram Sahoo of Jhatiapada hamlet in Jajpur district's Dharamsala police limits, died while riding a bicycle with her husband. The police had filed a murder charge against Jayaram, and on January 7, 2000, the court of extra sessions judge in Jajpur found him guilty and sentenced him to life in jail.
The same year, Jayaram appealed the trial court's decision to the High Court, claiming that his wife died after falling from the cycle by mistake. On Thursday, a division bench consisting of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice RK Pattanaik overturned the trial court's decision. The prosecution, they claimed, had failed to demonstrate a chain of events in the case.
"The circumstances relied on by the prosecution are not conclusive nor do they rule out every potential hypothesis except the one to be proven." Furthermore, the chain of evidence is insufficient to provide any plausible basis for a conclusion consistent with the accused's innocence. "It does not unmistakably point to the accused's guilt," the bench said, according to TNIE.
