The Allahabad High Court has given a split verdict in a nine-year-old case involving the fatal shooting of National Investigation Agency (NIA) Deputy Superintendent of Police Tanzeel Ahmed and his wife in their car in Bijnor.

Justice Rajiv Gupta of the court’s two-judge Bench ruled in favour of the acquittal of the accused, Raiyyan, while Justice Harvir Singh partially upheld the May 2022 order of the Bijnor trial court, which had convicted him, and commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment.

Justice Rajiv Gupta noted that the defence highlighted significant omissions and contradictions in the testimony of the eyewitnesses. For instance, the late officer’s brother and daughter had not revealed the assailants’ names at the time of registering the FIR.

In view of the split verdict,

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