‘Motive, uncorroborated disclosure not enough’: Delhi court discharges son in father’s murder case

The court further observed that such cases fail to meet the threshold of ‘sufficient ground for presuming’ guilt required at the discharge stage.

The order, therefore, discharged one Luv Bhardwaj underlining that the “charge cannot be framed on motive and bare disclosure alone without additional corroborative evidence”.

It continued, “Except for mere suspicion against the accused Luv Bhardwaj, based on the alleged motive, there is no prima facie evidence against him.”

One Ramesh Bhardwaj was murdered in January when he allegedly went to visit his former employee and friend, Jitendra.

The co-accused Jitendra’s son, Abhishek, made a disclosure statement alleging that they conspired to murder Luv’s father, along with him, at the Red Light of Harish Chander Hospital in the national capital.

He also alleged that Luv offered Jitender Rs 10 lakh to murder his father and also paid Rs 40,000 in advance.

Advoacte Pradeep Khatri, who was representing Luv, argued “no person can be compelled to face trial solely on the basis of motive or a bare disclosure statement without independent corroboration”.

Additional public prosecutor Girish Giri, opposing the plea, argued that Luv had conspired with the co-accused to kill his father and the “motive of property dispute, financial consideration and pre-existing relationship between the accused persons are strongly supported by witness statements and documentary evidence”.

The court pointed out that the disclosure statements could be obtained through questionable means or could be fabricated.

“Without independent verification, proceeding to trial, based solely on such statements, violates the principles of natural justice,” the court held.

The judge also highlighted that “motive + uncorroborated disclosure about conspiracy location” was “insufficient for framing charges”.

The order noted that charging the accused with murder based solely on motive would violate fundamental principles of criminal justice – the presumption of innocence, protection against wrongful prosecution and the requirement of substantive evidence before subjecting someone to trial.

The court found that the disclosure statement given by co-accused Abhishek against Luv was not an admissible piece of evidence as it did not lead to any discovery.

The other accused, Jitendra and his son, Abhishek, were charged with the murder of the deceased on November 18.

The deceased allegedly had a property dispute with his son and was living with his daughter, Ekta Arora and her two children for the last one year.

While delivering the verdict, the court reiterated the long-standing principle- “It is better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer.”