IMPORTANT POINT
Unless the chain of circumstances is complete conclusively establishing the guilt of the accused, he cannot be convicted.

JUDGMENT

Anil R. Dave, J. —

1) Being aggrieved by the Judgment delivered in Criminal Appeal No.935 of 2005 and in Criminal Appeal No. 798 of 2006 by the Rajasthan High Court, Criminal Appeal No.705/2008 and Criminal Appeal No.561 of 2008 have been filed respectively. The appellants in both the appeals have been convicted under the provisions of Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code to suffer imprisonment for life and a fine of Rs.1,000/-, in default 3 months’ simple imprisonment. As the appellants in both the afore-stated appeals were involved in the same offence, both the appeals were heard together and they are disposed of by this common judgment.

2) Facts giving rise to the appeals referred to above in a nutshell are as under:-

(a) Bhawani Singh (deceased) was an Income Tax Officer who was posted at Ajmer and was a member of a search party, function of which was to conduct raids on certain persons’ premises to find out whether the concerned persons had evaded payment of income-tax.

(b) In the evening of 22nd August, 2000, the deceased had left his residence for going to Ajmer Club with an intimation to his son Ajit Singh(P.W.11), that he would return by 10 p.m. As Bhawani Singh did not return till midnight, Ajit Singh (PW-11) had enquired from Vasudev (P.W.5), as to why the deceased had not returned. Vasudev (P.W.5), had thereupon informed Ajit Singh (P.W.11), that he had given lift to the deceased from Ajmer Club and had dropped him near Ricoh circle, which was near his residence. In the circumstances, Ajit Singh (P.W.11) had gone to make inquiry near the residence of Vasudev (P.W. 5), but in the meantime it was informed that body of the deceased was lying near Ricoh circle which was not quite far from the residence of the deceased. Incised wound on left side of chin and stab wounds were found on his body and it was found that the deceased died as somebody had attacked him. In the circumstances, First Information Report (Ext.P.15) was lodged around 2 a.m. and thereafter necessary investigation was made by the Investigation Officer (P.W. 26 ). In the course of investigation, Varun Chaudhary- Accused No.1, Sudhir @ Bunty -Accused no.2 and Himmat Singh @ Bobby -accused no.3 were arrested.

(3) It was the case of the prosecution that the afore- stated accused had committed the offence of murder by inflicting serious injuries upon the deceased. It was a case of circumstantial evidence as nobody had seen the commission of the offence. It was, however, recorded in the evidence that immediately after arrest of accused no.1 on 1st September, 2000, and arrest of accused no.2, a knife had been recovered from accused no.1 whereas blood-stained clothes of Himmat Singh, accused no.3 had been recovered.

(4) The trial court had considered the facts and on the basis of evidence recorded, accused no.1 was found to be guilty of having committed an offence under Section 302 of the IPC and was sentenced to undergo life imprisonment and pay a fine of Rs. 1,000/-, in default three months simple imprisonment whereas accused Nos. 2 and 3 were acquitted.

(5) The Trial Court had considered the fact that a knife had been recovered from accused no.1 and in view of the fact that incised wounds were found on the body of the deceased, it came to the conclusion that accused No.1 was guilty of the offence under the provisions of Section 302 of the IPC. The trial court considered the evidence of Pawan Kumar, Home Guard (P.W.3), who was on duty near the Ricoh Circle. He had seen three persons riding on a motor cycle around midnight. However, he could not identify the persons who were on the motor cycle.

(6) Pooran Singh (P.W.6) , a police constable, had also seen around same time three persons going on a motor cycle and as there were three persons on a motor cycle, he had given an indication to stop them by blowing his whistle but the motorcyclist did not stop and he could not record the full number of the motor cycle but he noticed that one of the digits was