Man on death row acquitted

Kolkata, June 27 A division Bench of the Calcutta High Court, comprising Justices Girish Chandra Gupta and K K Prasad, acquitted Buddhadev Giri on Friday who was awarded death sentence by the West Midnapore session court in June 2007.

The Lalgarh Police had arrested Giri, a supporter of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), for his involvement in the killing of CPM supporter Snehasish Das on May 26, 2006. His family had accused Giri and three other JMM supporters of killing Das. They were arrested in June 2006. In 2007, the session court had awarded death sentence to Das. He later filed a petition challenging the verdict.

On Friday, the Bench observed that eyewitnesses in the case had been influenced. Thus, their statements could not be accepted, the court said.