HC acquits woman 17 yrs after she ‘confessed’ to killing husband

Cuttack: Seventeen years back, a 25-year-old woman had walked into a police station in Sundargarh district, claiming to have killed her husband. Recently, the Orissa high court overturned the life term that had been awarded to her by the trial court, calling it a “miscarriage of justice” as the judgment was based on “surmises and conjectures”.
According to the case records, Laulina Achariya of Barupoda turned up at Sundargarh town police station on May 28, 2007, claiming to have murdered her husband, Surendra Bag (31).
Police went to her residence and found Surendra lying in the room, covered with a blanket up to his chest.
There was blood everywhere and an axe was also recovered from the spot. A murder case was registered at Rajgangpur police station, as Laulina’s residence was within its jurisdiction, and she was later put on trial.
On July 3, 2009, the Sundargarh sessions judge sentenced her to life imprisonment. The same year Laulina challenged the trial court judgment in the high court. Advocate Jeevan Ranjan Dash argued on her behalf.
On Oct 9, while acquitting the 42-year-old Laulina — she was granted bail on June 25, 2014 — of murder charge, the two-judge bench of Justice Debabrata Dash and Justice V Narasingh said, “On an in-depth analysis of the evidence on record, this court is unable to persuade itself to arrive at a hypothesis that only the accused is the author of the crime.”
While there was no eyewitness to the crime, the court observed that the prosecution had not been able to establish “the last seen theory beyond reasonable doubt”. It also noted discrepancies in the statements of three witnesses.
Further, the judges said the statement of the accused was not recorded before a magistrate under 164 CrPC, and that the confession before police had no value in the court of law.