JUDGMENT :

Madan B. Lokur, J.

The substantial issues raised in this appeal, in which the conviction is based on circumstantial evidence, primarily relate to the presence of the convict at the place and time of the murder of Gangamma, the analysis of the fingerprint evidence recovered from the place of incident and the recovery of blood stained clothes of the convict and the ornaments of the deceased at his instance. On all issues, we find in favour of the convict and conclude that that none of the circumstances that have been found against him by the High Court and which have led to his conviction have been satisfactorily proved. The conviction must, therefore, be set aside.

The facts

2. On 5th November, 1990 the appellant Prakash, ordinarily a resident of Nagenahalli village in Doddaballapur taluk of Bangalore district was searching for Gangamma's house in Bangalore. While doing so, he met PW-6 (also named Gangamma) and asked her for directions. Since PW-6 did not know the way to Gangamma's house, she took Prakash to PW-7 Ammajamma's house, and requested her to take Prakash to Gangamma's house.

3. Ammajamma then took Prakash to Gangamma's house. On reaching there, Prakash informed Gangamma that Swamy (son of her brother PW-3 Hucha Basappa) and he had come from the village and he enquired from Gangamma whether Swamy had reached. Gangamma informed him that Swamy had not come to her house and asked him (Prakash) to disclose his identity. Thereupon, Prakash introduced himself and Ammajamma left them and returned home. This happened at about 1.00 p.m. on 5th November, 1990.

4. In the evening, Gangamma would normally visit PW-1 Revamma's house, across the road, for watching TV. When Gangamma did not come in the evening on 5th November, 1990 Revamma sent her grandson Lohith aged about 5 years to Gangamma's house to call her. Gangamma then came with Lohith to Revamma's house and informed her that she could not watch TV at her house as usual since some relatives from her village had come to her house and she had to cook food for them. Soon thereafter, Gangamma left and returned to her house. According to the First Information Report (FIR) this was at about 8.00 p.m. on 5th November, 1990.

5. On the next day, at about 5.30 p.m. Revamma had gone to a medical shop where she learnt that Gangamma had been murdered in her house. Thereupon, she went to Gangamma's house and found a crowd had gathered over there. She entered Gangamma's house and saw the dead body with her clothes and other articles lying scattered about. She then sent word through PW-4 Muniyappa and others to Gangamma's brother PW-3 Hucha Basappa about the incident.

6. Revamma was advised by some people in the crowd to lodge a complaint with the police. Therefore, she went to the police station and lodged a complaint about the incident at about 7.30 p.m. and an FIR was registered.

7. The Investigating Officer PW-25 D'Souza soon reached the place of occurrence, that is, Gangamma's house. The dog squad, a fingerprint expert and a photographer also reached there a little later. On a requisition made by the Investigating Officer, PW-12 Ramachandra the photographer took photographs of the dead body and the crime scene. He also took a photograph of a passbook MO-13 lying at the scene of the incident. The fingerprint expert PW-20 Nanaiah examined nine articles in the premises and found some fingerprints on a plastic cover containing the inscription ‘Canara Bank'. Nanaiah took the plastic cover [Exh. P-18] with him for a detailed examination.

8. The Investigating Officer seems to have taken the fingerprint of Gangamma and that was later given to Nanaiah who compared the fingerprint with the chance print on Exh. P-18 and concluded that they were not identical. He issued a certificate in this regard on 9th November, 1990.

9. While the Investigating Officer was at the place of occurrence, Hucha Basappa (Gangamma's younger brother) arrived and he revealed that he suspected Prakash's involvement in