Bhubaneswar: After almost spending 19 years in prison for a triple murder conviction, a man from Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district was released on Wednesday after a judge ruled that he had been wrongfully convicted in 2005.
Habil Sindu of Balrampur village under Jashipur police limits of the district had been accused of murdering three persons including a two-year-old child on 3rd January 2003. Those killed, allegedly on suspicion of practising black magic, were a couple and their child in Sindu’s neighbourhood. Sindu was arrested soon after the murders following a complaint.
In 2005, the then additional-district-cum-sessions judge (Baripada) sentenced Habil to life
imprisonment. However, Sindu challenged the judgment in the HC.
Considering the sensitivity of the case, the HC appointed an amicus curiae to probe the case.
The district and sessions court acquitted Habil on Wednesday owing to lack of evidence after studying the entire case, hearing 11 witnesses and going through a 32-page investigation report.
“I am very happy as the court has cleared me of all charges and has set me free. Though I have a family, they disowned me. I will return to the village and take up farming,” said Sindu.
“Sindu was accused of the triple murders on the basis of the complaint. The investigation was done based on the complaints, but, the prosecution failed to produce any circumstantial evidence and extra-judicial confession for which the accused was freed by the District and Sessions Court Judge Pradeep Kumar Patnaik.,” said Asit Ota, Sindhu’s advocate.
