PRAYAGRAJ, Dec. 30 -- Thirty-eight years after being sentenced to life, the Allahabad high court has acquitted three men accused of murder, holding that the case was one of a "blind murder" and that the crime had been committed by someone else.

Acquitting the accused, a division bench of Justice JJ Munir and Justice Sanjiv Kumar observed that the prosecution had "utterly failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt" and that the trial court had not appreciated the evidence in the correct perspective, arriving at a conclusion "based on conjectures and improper appreciation of evidence".

According to the prosecution, the informant's brother was allegedly thrashed and beaten to death by the accused on July 8, 1982. It was claimed that ...