Pune: A sessions court in the city acquitted a cab driver, Nagnath Tukaram Manjule (46) from Darphal village in Solapur district, of murdering his wife and throwing the body in Karha river near Saswad in Pune district on Feb 5, 2009, after he spent over 10 years in jail as an undertrial prisoner.The case remained undetected for almost seven years after the victim’s body was found in Karha river as the police were unable to establish her identity. A local court on July 2, 2010, even accepted the “A” final summary report of police, which referred to the case deemed true, but investigators were not able to locate the culprits or find enough evidence to proceed with a trial.Manjule did not file a missing person’s complaint related to his wife. Her relatives filed such a complaint on April 6, 2010.The turning point came on Dec 30, 2015, when Manjule allegedly confessed before his relatives, including his brother-in-law, at a wedding that he had killed his wife and had thrown the body in Karha river because the couple would frequently quarrel over his coming home late in the night from work.The police got the court’s directive to reopen the case for investigation, and arrested Manjule on Jan 29, 2016. He was in jail since then till the court’s final verdict on April 9. The entire case was based on the alleged extra-judicial confession of the accused.Additional sessions judge SD Kulkarni held that the prosecution’scase hinged on the alleged confession but “lacked any corroborative evidence”. The judge noted that the investigation failed to establish key links, including seizure of the vehicle allegedly used to transport the body, examination of neighbours, or any last-seen theory or recovery evidence connecting the accused to the crime.The court found the testimony of the key witness, brother-in-law of the accused, “unreliable”, noting that a criminal complaint had been filed against him by the sister of the accused, indicating strained relations and “lack of impartiality”. It observed that the prosecution failed to establish that the confession was made voluntarily or in a fit state of mind, making it unsafe to base a conviction solely on such evidence.Observing that the prosecution evidence “falls short, not beyond reasonable doubt”, the court extended the benefit of doubt and acquitted the accused of all charges.Yerawada jail superintendent Sunil Dhamal told TOI, “Manjule was released from jail after receiving directions from the court.”
