Overview
- A division bench of Justices Siddharth and Jai Krishna Upadhyay set aside the 2003 convictions on February 16 and ordered Raees’s release if not wanted in any other case.
- The court found the then five-year-old eyewitness had admitted in cross-examination that his statements were tutored and given under threat from the informant and a government advocate.
- Post-mortem reports indicated use of a very heavy incised weapon that nearly severed necks, undercutting the prosecution claim of an ordinary knife allegedly recovered at Raees’s instance.
- Alleged extrajudicial confessions to two witnesses were deemed a weak basis for conviction, recorded by police after an unexplained two-month delay and viewed as inherently improbable.
- Calling the case a sad commentary on criminal justice, the judges urged increasing judges, staff and infrastructure, and noted the human cost as Raees faces uncertain reintegration after decades in prison.