Overview
- Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami directed the justice department to file a review plea and said the state will deploy its best legal team.
- A Supreme Court bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sanjay Karol, and Sandeep Mehta acquitted Akhtar Ali on September 10 after rejecting the DNA analysis presented against him.
- The judgment noted that a botany expert without human DNA profiling expertise conducted key forensic work and warned trial courts against mechanical imposition of capital punishment.
- The case dates to November 2014 when a seven-year-old went missing from a wedding near Kathgodam and was found dead days later, leading to a 2016 death sentence that the high court upheld in 2019.
- Public pressure has mounted for a challenge to the acquittal, with protests reported and the victim’s family demanding a review.