The Supreme Court has acquitted a man who was sentenced to death for the alleged murder of his family members in 2012 because of the “casual and negligent” investigation in the case by the Uttar Pradesh Police.

“No plausible evidence has been brought on record by the prosecution to prove the above story so as to establish the motive attributed to the appellant-accused,” the court said on January 28 while acquitting Gambhir Singh.

“Having considered the material available on record in its entirety, we find that the present one is a case involving utter lackadaisical approach on the part of the investigating agency as well as the prosecution,” the bench added. “The investigation of a case involving gruesome murders of six innocent persons was carried out in a most casual and negligent manner.”

Singh was arrested in 2012 along with a woman Gayatri and a minor on charges of the murder of Singh’s brother Satyabhan, sister-in-law Pushpa and their four children over a dispute related to their ancestral property in Agra, The Times of India reported.

In 2017, a trial court sentenced him to death but acquitted Gayatri. In 2019, the Allahabad High Court rejected his plea challenging the ruling, prompting him to move the Supreme Court to appeal against the death penalty.

In its January 28 judgement, the Supreme Court held that “no effort whatsoever was made to collect proper evidence of motive” and added that the “prosecution’s case is full of holes which are impossible to mend”.

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