The Gauhati High Court on Saturday acquitted the mother and sister of prime accused Govind Singhal in the murder case of Shweta Agarwal of 2017.
The court also ordered a re-trial of the case in a lower court. Govind Singhal, accused of killing Shweta Agarwal, was handed the death penalty by a fast-track court earlier.
Meanwhile, the mother and sister of Govind Singhal were charged as accomplices in the crime that had rocked the city in 2017.
The fast-track court had awarded life sentences to the mother and sister on charges of murder, tampering with evidence and criminal conspiracy.
Shweta Agarwal, a fifth semester B Com student at K C Das commerce college in Guwahati, was found dead in the bathroom of the Singhal’s rented house at the Bharalumukh area in Guwahati on December 4, 2017.
Notably, she was the state topper in the commerce stream of 12th standard Assam Higher Secondary Education Council (AHSEC) in 2015.
Govind Singhal had confessed to having killed Agarwal and told the police about the pre and post murder circumstances and also said that he had stuffed the body in a sack and set it on fire.
