HC sets aside life term of headmaster in 16-yr-old murder case

Cuttack: After 12 years, the Orissa high court has set aside the conviction of a headmaster in a 16-year-old murder case on the ground that the prosecution’s case appeared doubtful and the evidence was not enough to hold him guilty.
The adhoc additional sessions judge, fast-track court no. 1, Phulbani in Kandhamal district had sentenced Kartik Paramanik, in-charge headmaster of Luhuringia primary school, to life imprisonment in the murder case on Mar 24, 2012.
According to the prosecution’s case, a mob attacked the house of one Naresh Digal in Dakerpanga village under Raikia police station on Aug 25, 2008 evening.Naresh along with his family members ran away to save their lives. But Paramanik and his associates chased Naresh’s younger brother Ramesh and allegedly hacked him to death him with an axe. Ramesh’s body was found at Budamaha, a nearby village, the next day.
Paramanik had challenged the trial court verdict in the HC on Apr 27, 2012 and was granted bail on July 1, 2014.
The two-judge bench of Justices Debabrata Dash and Gourishankar Satapathy on May 21 said, “On analysis of oral and documentary evidence on record, there appears that the prosecution case against the convict appears to be doubtful and the evidence of the witnesses are shrouded with suspicion and no clear and clinching evidence is forthcoming to maintain the conviction of the appellant...”
The bench said, “Further, the evidence of prosecution is not up to the standard to hold the convict guilty of the offences since the prosecution has not been able to establish that the convict was a member of unlawful assembly as that of the mob...”
“In such a situation and circumstance, this court considers that benefit of doubt must go to convict-appellant, who has a fundamental right not to be convicted on suspicion or surmise, unless his guilt is proved beyond all reasonable doubt,” it ruled.