Garai acquitted in Indira Sharma murder case

PROSECUTIONS FAILS TO ‘FULLY ESTABLISH’ CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE AGAINST ACCUSED

GANGTOK, 25 March: Lance Naik Rajendra Nath Garai, the accused in the murder of Indrani Sharma, has walked scot free of all charges following his acquittal of all charges. In a quirky combination of legal requirements and technicalities and lack of sufficient evidence, RN Garai, was pronounced not guilty by the District & Sessions Judge, Special Division II, a few months ago and was ordered to be immediately set free from State Jail here where he had been languishing since he was taken into custody back in 2005.
The acquittal come in spite of the fact that there was a strong suspicion and doubt even in the minds of the court that the former Lance Naik was guilty of the offence under section 302 of the IPC for murder. The prosecution, however, could not make a convincing enough case against him, and as the court observed, could not even “fully establish” the circumstantial evidence on which it has built its entire case.
The disappearance of Indrani Sharma and the subsequent recovery of her charred dead body a few days later had created a storm and outraged the people of Gangtok an army man had been accused of first raping and then murdering her. The victim was the wife of an SAP personnel and was a resident of Burtuk. On 04 January, 2005 she had been taken by RN Garai to the quarters of his superior on the pretext of getting her kerosene oil. After that, no saw her, and a few days later, her body was recovered from the septic tank, burnt and with strangulation marks on it.
Later, the police had also discovered blood stains on the floor in the quarters of one Colonel SK Tomar. Immediately after the incident, RN Garai had proceed on leave to his home in Midnapore, West Bengal.
The murder had scandalised Sikkim and a strike was also observed demanding the immediate arrest of the accused. The needle of suspicion had already settled on RN Garai by then. The matter was even brought up with the Union Home Minister by Chief Minister Pawan Chamling in Delhi. RN Garai was eventually taken into custody in West Bengal and brought to Sikkim to face murder charges.
Originally, the police had charged RN Garai with murder and rape, but by the time the chargesheet was framed, the rape charges were dropped as the medical report proved inconclusive. This was also because the body had been burnt and only limited forensic examination possible.
This, along with other events, played a strong role in the acquittal of RN Garai, who, as per police sources at the time, had confessed to the crime while in police custody.
RN Garai had also reportedly given statements to the police which supposedly led to the recovery of certain articles at the site where the dead body had been disposed. However, the Court noted that when a recovery of article is made at the instance of the accused, and based on his alleged confessional statement given while in police custody, the court must not attach much importance to the recovery part of the case put forth by the prosecution.
The Court noted that even though there was a strong suspicion that the accused had murdered Indrani Sharma, it was for the prosecution to prove the allegation beyond doubt.
In this regard, the Court noted “…in a case where prosecution relies on circumstantial evidence to bring home the charge… the circumstance from which the conclusion of guilt is to be drawn in the first instance must be fully established and all the facts so established must be consistent only with the hypothesis of the guilt of the accused”.
The Court, in its order, has noted that there are “several breaks in the chain of circumstances”, which rather than forming a link that conclusively proves the guilt of the accused, have created doubts on the prosecution’s story.
At the same time, the Court noted that there were materials on record which gave rise to strong suspicion against the accused that he may have committed the murder. In the end though, Lance Naik RN Garai was given the benefit of doubt and acquitted of the charge of murder.
He has since been released from the state prison and has reportedly gone home to Midnapore.