UditVani, Jamshedpur : The court of Special POCSO Judge Shreesh Dutt Tripathy here on Tuesday acquitted the sole accused, Supriyo Ghosh alias Raja Hitler, in the sensational case of rape and murder of his 5 year old stepdaughter from Sonari in Special POCSO Case No. 56 of 2020.
The defence counsels in this case were senior advocate KS Das (Jolly Das) and Amit Kumar Tiwari.
The court passed the acquittal verdict on the basis of insufficient evidence against the accused, the entire case being based on circumstantial evidence. The judgment came after four years and eight months of the incident.
The incident had come to light on 31.08.2020 when a five year old girl (name concealed) of New Kapali Basti area of Sonari police limits went missing while playing outside her house. Her mother Rajani Patro, along with her family members and neighbours searched for the deceased everywhere but failed to find her. Sensing something serious, Rajani lodged a missing person report with the Sonari PS on 1st September.
On 2nd September, Sonari police received a tip-off about a minor girl’s dead body being found near bushes on the banks of Swarnarekha river at Balram Bhatta near Marine Drive, some 100 yards away from the Shamshan Kali Mandir. The body was found naked with the left palm missing. An FIR (142/2020) was lodged in this connection under sections 363, 302, 201, 364, 376A, 376B and 6 of POCSO Act.
The incident sparked outrage among the local residents who protested against the heinous crime. The then officer in-charge of Sonari police station, Renu Gupta, was given charge of investigation in this case. Police doubted that the girl was raped and later killed brutally near Marine Drive. They arrested Supriyo Ghosh, second husband of Rajani Patro, then just above 21 years, on the basis of suspicion. They had claimed that Supriyo killed his stepdaughter as he wanted his own child from Rajani who worked in a beauty parlour.
During the argument, the defence counsels primarily argued that the entire case was based on circumstantial evidence. They said the prosecution side had failed to establish the existence of chain of circumstances in this case as there was not a single eyewitness of the alleged crime committed by Supriyo Ghosh. Rajani Patro, her relatives and neighbours, in their statement as witnesses, said they had come to know about the incident from others. The hearsay witnesses could not be relied for conviction of the accused, the defence counsels argued.
The postmortem report of the deceased also did not show signs of rape. Also, no fingerprints or death weapon were found which could incriminate the accused.
As per prosecution, Supriyo had come to his in-laws place at Sonari on the day of incident. After his meals, he allegedly went out with his stepdaughter for a ride on his scooty. Ever since, the girl was not seen alive, leading police to doubt Supriyo’s involvement in the minor’s brutal killing. Police alleged that the scooty was stolen from the garage of its owner Rozali Minz alias Rojali Toppo of Shiraman Nagar under MGM police station area on 31st August 2020. A separate case of scooty theft (68/2020) was registered by MGM police. However, Supriyo was acquitted of theft charges.
In this case, the defence counsels cited several leading Supreme Court rulings in favour of the accused. The most prominent of them was Sharad Birdhi Chand Sarda versus State of Maharashtra (1984).
In this landmark case, the Apex court had relied on the five golden principles or the ‘Panchsheel of the proof of a case based on circumstantial evidence. As per this rule, there must be a chain of evidence so complete as not to leave any reasonable ground for the conclusion consistent with the innocence of the accused and must show that in all human probability the act must have been done by the accused.
The defence side put up the argument on 26th November 2024 and again on 19th April 2025. The first hearing of the case was held on 27th November 2020. Supriyo’s father, Subhash alias Bablu Ghosh, a resident of Gokulnagar, Dimna Road, expressed satisfaction on the acquittal of his son. He said he had waited and prayed very long for his son’s acquittal.
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