IMPORTANT POINT
The conclusion drawn by the High Court that the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt s that Sobhraj was the foreigner who had accompanied the deceased, a foreigner to Varanasi Hotel, stole his passport and travellers cheques and utilised the same for his ulterior purposes after tampering with them, was sufficient to record an acquittal in his favour for the offences u/ss. 302, 380, 420 and 467 Indian Penal Code.

JUDGMENT

M.K. Mukherjee, J.-Charles Gurmukh Sobhraj, the respondent herein, and Ms. Maris Andree Laclare were placed on trial before the Additional Sessions Judge, Varanasi for having entered into a criminal conspiracy, along with one Ajai Chaudhary alias Mohan Lal, to cheat by impersonating themselves as Mr. Nipier Ponant and Mrs. Nicole Ponant at Nataraj Hotel, Varanasi and as Mr. & Mrs. Alan Aren Jacobs at Varanasi Hotel, Varanasi, to commit theft of passport, travellers cheques and other articles belonging to one Mr. A.A. Jacobs (the deceased), to forge signatures of A.A. Jacobs on his travellers cheques and on Guest Registration card in Varanasi Hotel and to use them as genuine documents and to commit the murder of A.A. Jacobs. They were also accused of having committed all the above illegal acts in pursuance of their criminal conspiracy; and Sobhraj was separately charged for commission of these offences on his own. On conclusion of the trial the learned Judge recorded an order of conviction and sentence against both of them for the offence of conspiracy and against Sobhraj alone for the offences punishable under Sections 302, 380, 420 and 467 IPC.

2. Aggrieved thereby they filed two separate appeals in the Allahabad High Court which were heard together by a Division Bench. Both the learned Judges comprising the Bench held, by their separate judgments, that the prosecution failed to establish its case against Ms. Laclare and, accordingly, allowed her appeal. So far as Sobhraj was concerned the learned Judges were divided in their opinions and hence his appeal was laid before another learned Judge of the Court in accordance with Section 392 Cr.P.C. The learned Judge, before whom the appeal was laid, opined that the appellant (Sobhraj) was entitled to the benefit of reasonable doubt and deserved to be acquitted of the various offences for which he had been charged. In accordance with the opinion so expressed the Division Bench allowed the appeal of Sobhraj and set aside the order of conviction and sentence recorded against him by the Additional Sessions Judge, Varanasi. The above order of the High Court is under challenge in this appeal preferred by the State after obtaining special leave.

3. Briefly stated, the prosecution case is that on January 3, 1976 three foreigners and one Indian checked in at the reception hall of Natraj Hotel, Varanasi at about 1.20 P.M. One of the foreigners was Jacobs (the deceased), an Israeli National and as subsequently revealed during investigation, the other two foreigners, who had represented themselves as a couple named Mr. Nipier Ponant and Mrs. Nicole Ponant, were Sobhraj, a French National, and Ms. Laclare, a Canadian National. The fourth visitor was an Indian National, who gave out his name as Mohan Lal. After seeing and approving the rooms in the hotel, the Indian National first made an entry in the Arrival and Departure Register of the Hotel (Ext.1) by putting down his name as Mohan Lal and after he had written the word I to indicate that his nationality was Indian Sobhraj told him that he had to stay with Jacobs. Thereupon Mohan Lal deleted the incomplete entry and Sobhraj made an entry in the Register (Ext.I) for himself as well as for his lady companion in the assumed names of Mr. Nipier Ponant and Mrs. Nicole Ponant. The deceased Jacobs and the Indian National then went to occupy Room No. 33 and Sobhraj and his lady companion Room No. 38 , both on the second floor of the Hotel.

(b) On the following day (January 4, 1976) at or about 12.30 P.M. Sobhraj and his lady companion checked out of the Natraj Hotel on the pretext that it was very cold and that they would prefer to stay in Clarks Hotel, Varanasi. They then made a lump sum payment towards the joint hotel bills of the two rooms saying that the balance would be paid by the other two visitors. A little later, at or about 1 P.M., both of them checked in at Varanasi Hotel, Varanasi under the assumed names of Mr. and Mrs. Alan A