Pune: A Baramati court held that sniffer-dog evidence cannot be used to prove a murder charge and acquitted a 37-year-old casual worker accused of killing a loan recovery agent (54) in Daund in 2024.The court also found that DNA reports could not establish a link between alleged blood stains on the trousers of the accused and those of the victim.Additional sessions judge Hitendra Urmila Anilkumar Vani acquitted the casual worker of murder under Section 302 of the IPC and offences under the Arms Act. The court held that Pravin Malekar’s death was homicidal but the prosecution had failed to establish that the casual worker was responsible for it.The court noted that neither of the two prosecution witnesses was an eyewitness. It said the prosecution, therefore, had to establish the casual worker’s involvement through circumstantial evidence, including the sniffer-dog evidence.Malekar was on his way home when he was fatally attacked by a person on March 1, 2024. According to the police investigation, a sniffer dog led the police to the casual worker near his residence, about 2km from where Malekar was found injured.The trial court observed, “Although the assistance of a sniffer dog can be taken for investigation of a crime, the capability of such a dog cannot be used as evidence for proving the charge against the accused.”It held that it cannot be established that the casual worker had injured Malekar with a knife merely because the dog barked after seeing the former.The prosecution had claimed that blood stains were found on the casual worker’s trousers. Both DNA reports stated that a DNA profile could not be obtained from the stains. The court consequently held that the prosecution could not establish that the blood belonged to Malekar and found no circumstantial evidence connecting the casual worker to the offence.The police had claimed at the time of the casual worker’s arrest that he was disturbed by vehicle noise and had attacked a motorcyclist after seeing him on the road. The prosecution could not prove this motive, though.The casual worker was arrested on March 2, 2024, and released on bail on April 21, 2025.
