Forty-one years after a former soldier was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, the Allahabad High Court has overturned the judgment, pointing to inconsistencies in witness statements.

A bench comprising Justices Siddhartha Varma and Ram Manohar Narayan Mishra allowed the petition of Murari Lal, who is currently out on bail in the case.

The FIR, filed on July 6, 1982, stated that Seodan Singh had accused Murari Lal of shooting his brother, Pool Singh, with a licensed gun as he was traveling from his village to Wazeerganj.

On May 3, 1983, a sessions court in Badaun convicted Murari Lal under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

"The contradictions in the statements of the prosecution witnesses were also very glaring. The prosecution witness 1 had stated that the dead body was taken to the police station from the place of occurrence, but the prosecution witness 4 had stated that the dead body was not there at the police station ever," the high court said in its order last month.

"What is more, the Court is of the view that when prosecution witness 2 was the sole eye-witness and his statements had not been corroborated by the other witnesses present, then the evidence of the sole eye-witness had to be examined properly and with caution which has not been done in the present case," it said.

In its judgment dated August 14, the High Court observed that the contradictions in the statements of the prosecution witnesses were highly conspicuous.