Salendra Sen Sinha, an appellant, who had previously been convicted and sentenced in absentia, was acquitted in the High Court in Lautoka on August 1.
His appeal was heard on July 28.
Mr Sinha and another person were charged with obtaining property by deception.
Presiding judge Justice Sunil Sharma said that on July 27, 2018, in Lautoka, the pair obtained water blasters valued at $48,780 from Clyde Fiji Ltd.
Mr Sinha first appeared in the Lautoka Magistrate’s Court on October 8, 2018 and was granted bail.
The court heard he later entered a plea of not guilty and a trial in absentia was ordered after he failed to appear on November 13, last year.
On January 17 this year, Mr Sinha was convicted before being sentenced in absentia to 27 months imprisonment on February 10.
His appeal, which was filed late, was treated as having been filed on time as the delay was not substantial and the State did not object.
The court determined that the prosecution failed to prove the charge beyond a reasonable doubt. It also found no evidence that Mr Sinha had deceived the complainant into releasing the items.
The complainant, Praveen Chand, had been in communication via Viber and email with a person who identified himself as Mr Cargill from the Ministry of Agriculture.
A key prosecution witness, Ajeshni Bali, the branch operations officer, claimed to have heard the person’s name as Sinha but could not recall it clearly.
The court found this inconsistent with Chand’s evidence and questioned the credibility of Ms Bali’s testimony..
The prosecution’s case relied on circumstantial evidence, as the complainant never had direct dealings with Mr Sinha.
The evidence was based on the recovery of seven water blasters from the flat Mr Sinha was renting. However, the court found the prosecution’s case to be impacted by the lack of direct interaction between the complainant and Mr Sinha, coupled with the vague identification evidence.
The court heard the conviction was unsafe and therefore, not allowed. The appeal against conviction was allowed, the conviction quashed, and the sentence set aside.