ORDER :

1. These appeals are against a common judgment and order dated 04.03.2009 passed by the Patna High Court in Death Reference Case No. 4/2007 and Death Reference Case No. 12/2008 along with the criminal appeals filed by the accused persons against the judgment and order of the trial court. The trial court convicted the accused persons and awarded death sentence, which was referred before the High Court for confirmation. The High Court after hearing the parties set aside the judgments and orders of conviction passed by the trial court against the accused persons. Hence, these appeals have been filed by the informant/complainant before this Court.

2. The facts of the case, briefly stated, are as follows:-

(a) On 30.12.2005, Tej Pratap, the victim, aged about six years, became traceless while returning home from a shop at about 10.30 a.m. Uday Kumar Singh, the father was informed at his place of duty from his home. On hearing of such news, he came back and started searching in the neighbourhood, but the same was in vain. Accordingly, an FIR was lodged by the father with Barun Police Station alleging incident of kidnapping of his son by unknown miscreants.

(b) The Superintendent of Police, Aurangabad, learning the said fact, constituted two special Task Force for recovery of the victim boy.

(c) On 05.01.2006, Chandan Kumar (PW8/9), cousin of the informant received information on his telephone No. 244103 whereby the caller informed that Tej Pratap was in his custody. On 09.01.2006, another call was received on the said telephone No. by Babita Sinha (PW5/6), mother of Tej Pratap in which caller demanded Rs. 60 lakhs as ransom for releasing the victim. Investigating Officer (PW11/10) was duly informed about the said calls, who made arrangements for installing Caller I.D. on the said telephone. On 12.01.2006 at 10.25 a.m., another call was received from Mobile No. 9431615667 on the same telephone No. 244103 and the caller asked the receiver of the call to hand over the call to the father of the victim. Two more calls were received on the same telephone No. from mobile No. 9431135489 at 10.48 and 11.37 a.m. and instructions were given to the father of the victim to arrange the ransom to secure the release of the victim.

(d) The I.O. obtained the print out of these concerned mobile numbers 9431615667 and 9431135489 through the Sub-Inspector of Police Shri Sunil Kumar Singh. From the said print out, the subscribers were identified as Radhe Shyam Gupta and Arvind Kumar Singh, both of Pandu Bazar, Jharkhand in respect of mobile Nos. 9431615667 and 9431135489 respectively.

(e) On inquiry, the I.O. learnt from Arvind Kumar Singh that he has exchanged his SIM Card with Raju Kumar Gupta of Pandu Bazar and he is using the said SIM Card for operating the telephone booth with number 9431135489. He further stated that Mukesh Kumar Gupta (PW9/11), who managed the said booth, may be in a position to identify the callers.

(f) After identifying the telephone booths, the I.O. requested the Officer Incharge of Kutumba Police Station and of Vishrampur Police Station to seize the SIM Card and router machine of the two telephone booths of Radhe Shyam Gupta and Raju Kumar Gupta. Accordingly, on 24.01.2006, the SIM Card, router machine and the registers maintained in the two booths were seized at 12.30 p.m. and 13.30 p.m. respectively. Such seizure was made in the presence of two seizure-list witnesses, namely, Munna Kumar Singh and Sanjay Kumar Gupta.

(g) The I.O. thereafter interrogated Radhe Shyam Gupta and Raju Kumar Gupta. Radhe Shyam Gupta stated that he is not in a position to identify the caller who had made call from his booth on 12.01.2006. However, Raju Kumar Gupta confirmed the fact that he has exchanged his SIM Card with Arvind Kumar Singh and his telephone booth No. 9431135489 is being managed by his nephew Mukesh Kumar Gupta (PW9/11). Accordingly, Mukesh Kumar Gupta was examined on 29.01.2006, who stated that on 12.01.2006, Upendra Singh, Manoj K