Man acquitted of murder charge after 36 years

NEW DELHI: A man charged with the murder of his friend 36 years ago in West Bengal’s Rajarhat was acquitted by the Supreme Court (SC) on February 20, overturning the conviction handed down by the trial court and affirmed by the Calcutta HC.

The bench ruled that the evidence relied upon by the prosecution to prove the guilt of Md. Younus Ali Tarafdar was not sufficient.

“A close scrutiny of the material on record would disclose that the circumstances relied upon by the prosecution to prove the guilt of the appellant were not complete and do not lead to the conclusion that in all human probability the murder must have been committed by the appellant,” the SC held.

Tarafdar was accused of murdering his friend Becharam Dhara in March 1984. Dhara’s body was recovered from a well in a partially decomposed state. Tarafdar along with three others were charged with murder. The case against Tarafdar was based on the recovery of an Anglo-swiss wrist watch from a watch shop. The recovery was made after a confession from Tarafdar. The wrist watch, the prosecution argued, belonged to Kenaram Dhara, the brother of the deceased . Kenaram Dhara testified that he gave his wrist watch to Becharam Dhara when the latter left the house on March 15, 1984. The proprietor of the watch shop testified that Tarafdar gave him the wrist watch for repair on March 19, 1984. The trial court concluded that the recovery of the watch was a strong piece of circumstantial evidence, which proved the involvement of Tarafdar in the crime. Tarafdar’s signature on the counterfoil taken from the shop owner was not denied by the former, but he said that it was taken forcibly by the police during the investigation.