Alla­habad HC cites ‘defect’ in probe, com­mutes death sen­tence of four in CRPF attack case

The Hindu - International

31 Oct 2025

Cit­ing “defect in invest­ig­a­tion”, the Alla­habad High Court on Wed­nes­day set aside the death sen­tence of four per­sons and life impris­on­ment of another in con­nec­tion with a pre-dawn attack on Janu­ary 1, 2008, on a CRPF camp in Ram­pur dis­trict of Uttar Pra­desh. The attack left seven jawans and a rick­shawpuller dead. Eight per­sons were injured.

The Bench acquit­ted Mohammad Sharif, Sabaud­din, Imran Shah­jad, Mohammad Farooq and Jang Bahadur Khan of the charges of murder and oth­ers. The court, however, found the ve accused, includ­ing Khan who had been sen­tenced to life impris­on­ment, guilty under Sec­tion 25 (1-A) of the Arms Act and sen­tenced them to 10 years of rig­or­ous impris­on­ment. It imposed a ne of ₹ 1 lakh each on the peti­tion­ers who had approached the High Court against the judg­ment passed by the Addi­tional Dis­trict and Ses­sions Judge of Ram­pur on Novem­ber 1, 2019, and Novem­ber 2, 2019. “We are deeply con­cerned with the mag­nitude and enorm­ity of the offence and at the same time we are con­strained to observe that the pro­sec­u­tion miser­ably failed to prove the case against the accused for the prin­cipal offence bey­ond reas­on­able doubt which is a golden rule that runs through the web of crim­inal jur­is­pru­dence,” the court noted.

The court noted that the case would have reached a diŒerent con­clu­sion had the invest­ig­a­tion and the pro­sec­u­tion been con­duc­ted by trained police. The court poin­ted out how the FIR stated that pro­sec­u­tion wit­nesses had never known the accused from before and were never made to identify them through a test identification parade (TIP).

Source: https://www.pressreader.com/india/the-hindu-international-9BN2/20251031/281857239779721