NEW DELHI: Thirty-five years after 21 folks had been sentenced to life imprisonment in a double homicide case in Bihar, Supreme Courtroom on Wednesday acquitted the accused and closed the case, cautioning courts to watch out whereas coping with the offense of illegal meeting in order that harmless spectators or passive onlookers don’t get convicted. SC stated the prosecution had did not show its case and the accused had been entitled to the advantage of the doubt. It stated the testimonies of witnesses within the case neither corroborated each other nor had been aligned with the medical information. ‘Cannot be held prosecution discharged burden of proof’ The bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan stated “The varied contradictions within the type of materials omissions go to the basis of the matter, and in such circumstances, it can’t be held that the prosecution has discharged its burden of proof”.The incident, a conflict between two teams over a land dispute, happened in Katihar district in 1988, and the accused had been convicted and sentenced by the trial court docket in 1990. Two convicts died through the pendency of the case.The court docket stated mere presence on the scene of crime doesn’t ipso facto render an individual a member of an illegal meeting, until it’s established that the particular person shared its frequent object. “A mere bystander, to whom no particular position is attributed, wouldn’t fall inside the ambit of part 149 of the IPC,” it stated.“This court docket, as a matter of warning, has enunciated parameters to safeguard harmless spectators or passive onlookers from being convicted merely on account of their presence. This cautionary rule, nonetheless, doesn’t dilute the doctrine of constructive legal responsibility, beneath which proof of an overt act by every particular person is just not indispensable. The place the presence of a lot of individuals is established and plenty of are implied, prudence mandates strict adherence to this rule of warning,” the bench stated.