In Brief
On 21-22 April 1999, about 30-40 persons committed dacoity and murder in two houses in Bihar. The trial court convicted three accused of dacoity; one received death penalty. The High Court acquitted two (Nand Kishore Singh and Maheshwar Singh) and found the third (Mintu Kumar) was a juvenile. The Supreme Court upheld the acquittal, finding the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt due to: inadequate Test Identification Parade, minimal recovery of stolen goods, eyewitness failures to identify the accused, omission of key witnesses from the FIR despite the informant's knowledge, and pre-existing animosity suggesting false implication. The juvenility finding was upheld based on medical evidence. Appeals dismissed.
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