Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has acquitted Madan Kanhar, who was earlier convicted of killing a 20-year-old woman in 2005, citing lack of evidence.

Kanhar, a resident of Titrapanga village in Kandhamal district, was arrested on April 13, 2005, for allegedly attacking and killing the woman with an axe following a dispute. A case in this regard was registered at the Khajuripada police station.

A trial court in Phulbani found him guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment on January 2, 2008. However, after spending 14 years behind bars, Kanhar was granted bail by the High Court on April 19, 2019.

He had filed a jail criminal appeal against the trial court’s verdict on April 7, 2008.

"In the instant case, the discrepancies in the eyewitness testimony, the inconsistencies in the discovery of evidence, and the inconclusive forensic findings collectively fail to establish an unbroken chain of circumstances leading solely to the appellant’s guilt," the division bench of Justices SK Sahoo and Chittaranjan Dash said while delivering judgment on his appeal on March 7.

“The testimony of the supposed eyewitness lacks the sterling quality required for unassailable reliance. Moreover, while the postmortem report confirms the homicidal nature of death, it does not conclusively link the appellant to the crime. Therefore, in the absence of unimpeachable and irrefutable evidence, the benefit of the doubt must necessarily go to the appellant, as no conviction can be sustained on mere suspicion or weak circumstantial evidence,” the bench observed.