Kerala High Court acquits man on death row after 11 years of imprisonment

The Kerala High Court recently freed a man who was on death row since 2018 and who had remained in prison for over a decade in connection with a murder case [State of Kerala v Gireesh Kumar and connected case]..The High Court also awarded the now-acquitted man, Gireesh Kumar, ₹5 lakhs as compensation for his wrongful imprisonment of eleven years and the trauma he suffered while facing the death sentence. Kumar had been convicted by a sessions court in 2018 and sentenced to death in a case involving the murder of a 57-year-old woman in Kollam. However, he was arrested in the case much earlier, around June 24, 2013, and had remained in prison since then. On July 3, the High Court Bench of Justices AK Jayasankaran Nambiar and Syam Kumar VM found that the prosecution had not put forth any convincing evidence to prove the criminal charges against Kumar. The Court even opined that the botched-up investigation in the case leads to suspicions that Kumar may have been falsely incriminated in the case. The High Court took a dim view of these lapses in investigating the case, as well as the trial court's failure to apply due diligence while deciding on the case. "There was no evidence whatsoever before the learned Sessions Judge to convict the appellant under any of the sections of the IPC under which he was charged, much less to sentence him to capital punishment under sec. 302 of the IPC. To top it all, there has been a total absence of any semblance of objective enquiry by the learned Sessions Judge towards ascertaining whether the case at hand was one that qualified under the categorisation ‘rarest of the rare’ justifying the imposition of capital punishment," the High Court said. .The High Court further emphasised that a citizen's freedom cannot be curtailed by incriminating them in such a whimsical manner."The liberty and freedoms guaranteed to a citizen under the Indian constitution cannot be rendered so fragile, flimsy and trifling that they could be taken away by quixotic incrimination in criminal offenses which is followed up with a slip shod investigation and an improper appreciation of evidence which imposes the highest of all punishments, of death upon him. The faith that the general public reposes on the system is not only eroded by such incidents but it strikes at the very root of the edifice of rule of law on which this republic rests," the Court said. .By way of background, Gireesh Kumar was accused of trespassing into the house of a 57-year-old woman in Kollam in 2013, with the intent to commit robbery and rape. He was accused of murdering the woman. The prosecution also claimed that Kumar had stolen items worth ₹6 lakhs from her home.Kumar was arrested weeks after the woman's death in 2013. The criminal trial began in 2015 and he was convicted and sentenced to death by a trial court in 2018.Kumar challenged the trial court's verdict by way of an appeal. Meanwhile, the trial court records were also referred to the High Court to decide whether to confirm Kumar's death sentence or not. Both Kumar's appeal and death sentence reference was decided by the High Court on July 3 by way of a common judgment. .After examining rival arguments, the High Court found that the material presented by the prosecution to accuse Kumar of the crime was unreliable and insufficient to establish any guilt beyond a reasonable doubt."The endeavor of the prosecution to forge a chain of circumstantial evidence pointing to the guilt of the appellant has not reached its fruition," the High Court added..The Court proceeded to allow Kumar's criminal appeal while ordering the State to pay Kumar ₹ 5 lakhs within 3 months as compensation for violating his fundamental right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution."All through his long incarceration, the imminence of death had been looming upon him. Now that we have found that there was no evidence whatsoever to even arraign him as an accused in the first place, whether the ends of justice would be served by merely acquitting him is a question that piques our conscience. Can we close our eyes to the fact that he had to suffer incarceration for around a decade, that too a major part of it under a looming death sentence, before being acquitted on finding him innocent of the crime alleged?" the Court remarked. .Gireesh Kumar was represented by advocate M Rajesh. Special Public Prosecutor Ambika Devi S represented the State..[Read Judgment]