New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday acquitted three men awarded death sentence for killing the parents and other family members in 2014, noting that the prosecution failed to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt.On January 23, 2014, the accused Momin Khan with his wife Nazra along with Jaikam Khan and Sajid were alleged to have come armed with knives and assaulted Mausam Khan (father), Asgari (mother), Shaukeen Khan (brother), Shanno (sister-in-law), Samad (nephew) and Muskan (niece) and killed them brutally. The alleged murder was committed over the dispute over a brick-kiln in Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh.The entire case was based on the eyewitness evidence of two family members.The trial court had convicted all the four accused and sentenced them to death. The Allahabad high court on appeal had confirmed the conviction and sentence of three of them while acquitting one, Nazra.A bench comprising justices L. Nageswara Rao, B.R. Gavai and B.V. Nagarathna passed the order on an appeal filed by the three accused against the Allahabad high court judgment that had upheld their conviction and death penalty awarded by a trial court.“We find that the prosecution has utterly failed to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt. The conviction and death sentence imposed on the accused is totally unsustainable in law,” the judges said.Also read: ‘Right to Dignity Irrespective of Vocation’: SC Orders Govts to Issue ID Cards to Sex Workers“The trial court and the High Court were expected to exercise a greater degree of scrutiny, care and circumspection while directing the accused to be hanged till death,” the bench said.It further said that there were serious infirmities on various counts in the judgment of the trial court.In its judgment, the bench also noted that the prosecution witnesses were closely related to the deceased and the accused and could not be considered to be wholly reliable to base an order of conviction solely on their testimonies.According to Bar and Bench, senior counsel Nitya Ramakrishnan, appearing for Momin Khan, pointed out that the high court had disbelieved the evidence of these two witnesses with respect to Nazra but had convicted the other three based on the very same ocular evidence.She further submitted that immediately after the incident occurred, many villagers had assembled at the spot. However, though the statements of such witnesses were recorded, the prosecution has not examined a single witness. She, therefore, contended that an adverse inference needs to be drawn on account of non-examination of independent witnesses, though they were very much available, the report said.She further submitted that neither the high court nor the trial court has given any reasons justifying the award of capital punishment.The apex court noted that the high court had gone on to have an academic discussion with regard to the possibility, preponderance of probability, like a scientist conducting his experiments with great care, choosing between two or more possibilities, and preponderates of one over the other, etc.“The law, however, that is fully settled, is that, it is the duty of the prosecution to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt,” the bench said.(With inputs from PTI)