Muzaffarpur shelter home case: One more convict approaches Delhi High Court
Dec 28, 2020
New Delhi [India], December 28 : An appeal has been filed in Delhi High Court by one of the convicts challenging his conviction and sentencing by a trial court in connection with the Muzaffarpur shelter home case.
The petition stated, "The trial court has failed to appreciate the law and facts on record. The trial court has committed a grave error in law as well as on facts, as the conviction against the appellant is based on the assumption, presumptions and further on the surmises and conjectures and as such the impugned judgment and order on sentence is liable to be set aside."
Convict Ravi Kumar Roshan (awarded with life imprisonment) through Advocate Dr AP Singh has approached Delhi High Court challenging the trial court judgement which had convicted him for the offence punishable under section 376(2) read with section 109/376D/71/354/354A/120B/6 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) read with section 17/42/10/12 read with section 11/21(1) read with section 19/5/3 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012.
The appeal petition stated, "The trial court has not considered that as per the Bihar Police case diary, the photographs shown to the victim and in the statement under section 161 and 164, the victim did not even identify the photograph of Ravi Kumar Roshan. Bihar Police Investigation Officer (IO) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) prime witness under section 161 of CrPC, the victim statement was falsely amended, manipulated and it was shown that the photograph article recovery by Bihar Police and CBI from the side of Ravi Kumar Roshan."
Delhi High Court is already hearing appeals in the matter moved by several other convicts including Brijesh Thakur. Thakur was the owner of the NGO called Sewa Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti and managed the place where the incident took place. Thakur, through his appeal, has sought to quash the trial court order convicting and sentencing him, along with 18 others, dated January 20 and February 11 respectively.
According to the convict Brijesh Thakur's appeal, the trial court had conducted hearing in the matter in a "hurried manner" and thus it had violated his right to a free and fair trial as guaranteed under the Constitution of India.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had transferred the case from Bihar to a Delhi court and ordered the judge to complete it within six months, following which the trial court framed charges against 20 accused in the case.
