Important Point
Accused cannot opt to remain silent in his examination under Section 313, Cr.P.C.

JUDGMENT

RANJAN GOGOI, J.

Leave granted in SLP (Crl.) No. 1939 of 2011.

Each of the appellants in the appeals under consideration have been convicted under Sections 364 and 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code by the Learned Additional Sessions Judge, Rohini, Delhi. They have been sentenced to undergo RI for 10 years for the offence under Section 364/34 IPC whereas for the offence under Section 302/34 IPC they have been sentenced to undergo RI for life. Aggrieved, appellant Dharminder Singh @ Vijay Singh had filed Crl. A. No. 603/2008 and appellant Chintu Malhotra had filed Crl. A. No. 406/2008 before the High Court of Delhi. As the said appeals have been dismissed by the common order of the High Court dated 11.05.2009 appellant Dharminder Singh @ Vijay Singh has filed Crl. A. No.1614/2010 whereas appellant Chintu Malhotra has filed the connected appeal. Both the appeals were heard together and are being disposed of by this common order.

2. The prosecution case, in short, is that on 26.08.2000 the accused-appellants alongwith two other co-accused, namely, Gyan Chand Kashyap @ Kalu and Mohd. Tayyab Alam had hired Maruti Van No. DL 3CR 1271 to go to Haridwar. The said Van was driven by deceased Krishan Kumar and was registered in the name of his son Anirudh Kumar (PW-8). According to the prosecution the four persons including the two accused appellants were seen driving off in the vehicle with the deceased in the driver’s seat by PW-4 Jitender Kumar, another son of the deceased. According to the prosecution, PW-4 was called by the deceased to Kaushik Travels to deliver fresh clothes to the deceased and at the said place he had met the accused appellants, including accused Dharminder who is a friend of his brother Anirudh. They told PW-4 that they had hired the vehicle to go to Haridwar. Though the deceased was supposed to return on the next day he did not do so and, in fact, in the morning of 27.08.2000 an un-identified dead body was recovered from beneath a bridge at a place near Haridwar. The same was later identified to be that of Krishan Kumar. According to the prosecution on 29.08.2000 at about 9.15 P.M. the vehicle in question, i.e., Maruti Van bearing Registration No. DL 3CR 1271 was intercepted at Purnia, Bihar and the accused appellants and the other two co-accused persons were apprehended from the said vehicle. The aforesaid persons were later identified by PW-4 Jitender Kumar to be the persons who had hired the vehicle on 26.08.2000 to go to Haridwar.

3. To prove and establish its case the prosecution had examined 25 witnesses and had also exhibited a large number of documents. The events leading to the death of Krishan Kumar and the apprehension of the accused having taken place at three different places, i.e., Delhi, Haridwar and Purnia at Bihar, the evidence of the prosecution may be conveniently noticed from the sequence of the events that had occurred at the aforesaid

three places.

4. In so far as the hiring of the vehicle by the accused appellants to go to Haridwar is concerned, PW-4 Jitender Kumar, PW-8 Anirudh Kumar, PW-24 SI Dal Chand and PW-25 Inspector TPS Tomar would be the material witnesses. So far as recovery and identification of the dead body at Haridwar is concerned PW-11 Govind Singh Bhatuni, PW-12 Chander Kishor, PW-20 Insp. Kuldeep Singh and PW-23 SI Rajesh Kumar are the material witnesses. As regards the interception of the vehicle at Purnia and apprehension of the accused at the said place, the material witnesses are PW-5 SI Rajesh Kumar Dubey and PW-14 SI Ajit Kumar. PW-6 Mahadev Kesari and PW-7 Surinder Kumar examined in this regard had turned hostile alongwith PW-5 SI Rajesh Kumar Dubey.

Events at Delhi

5. The scrutiny of the evidence of PWs 4, 8, 24 and 25 would go to show that on 26.08.2000 sometime in the afternoon PW-4 Jitender Kumar was asked by the deceased to come to Kaushik Travels with fresh clothes as he was required to go to Haridwar. PW-4 reached Kaushik Travels and came to k