The court upheld the conviction for murder based on circumstantial evidence, emphasizing the necessity of a complete chain of circumstances, and commuted the death penalty to life imprisonment considering mitigating factors.

ORDER :

1. Heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the material placed before us.

2. The present Criminal Appeals arise out of the impugned Judgment and final Order dated 09.05.2022 passed by the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad (Lucknow Bench) in Capital Case No. 01 of 2014 and Criminal Appeal No. 1776 of 2016, whereby the High Court confirmed the conviction and the sentence of death imposed upon the Appellant by the learned Additional District & Sessions Judge, Court No. 5, Faizabad, in Sessions Trial No. 24 of 2013 (arising out of Case Crime No. 748 of 2011, under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860).

3. The relevant facts are summarized hereunder:

3.1 The Appellant, Shri Deen Dayal Tiwari, resided in village Pure Brijlal Tiwari Moiya Kapurpur, Police Station Pura Kalandar, District Faizabad (now Ayodhya), Uttar Pradesh. He was married to one Smt. Siyallali and had four minor daughters, namely (i) Mani, (ii) Riya, (iii) Guddan and (iv) Mahima.

3.2 Incident day: In the intervening night of 11/12.11.2011, at around 2:30 a.m., the Appellant’s brother, PW-1 (Shri Dinanath Tiwari) and PW-1’s wife, PW-2 (Smt. Suneeta alias Anita), purportedly heard frantic cries of “bachao-bachao” (save-save) emanating from the Appellant’s house, which was adjacent to their own. Alarmed by these cries, PW-1 and PW-2 rushed towards the Appellant’s house. They noticed that the door to the Appellant’s room was locked from inside. Despite knocking and threatening to break the door, it was not opened.

3.3 PW-1’s Version/Lodging of FIR: According to PW-1, when they continued to demand that the door be opened, the Appellant emerged briefly from within, allegedly holding a blood-stained axe, and warned them to leave or face the risk of being killed. He then went back inside and locked the door again. Sometime thereafter, PW-1 proceeded to the Police Station Pura Kalandar, located about 14-15 km away, and claims to have lodged a written complaint (Ex. Ka-1) at around 6:10 a.m. on 12.11.2011. A formal FIR (Case Crime No. 748 of 2011) under Section 302 IPC was registered against the Appellant at the said police station.

3.4 Arrival of Police & Arrest of the Appellant: On receiving information about the gruesome incident, PW-5 (Station Officer, Ajay Prakash Mishra) reached the Appellant’s house on the morning of 12.11.2011. Villagers had assembled in large numbers. The inner room, where the Appellant allegedly remained, was bolted. PW-5, with the help of the villagers, forced the door open and found the Appellant inside the room, holding an axe with fresh blood stains on it. The Appellant was immediately apprehended on the spot. Inside the same room, five bodies-those of the Appellant’s wife (Smt. Siyallali) and their four minor daughters-were lying in pools of blood.

3.5 Discovery & Recovery of Weapons: According to the prosecution, the Appellant, upon interrogation by PW-5, confessed to having killed his wife and daughters. On the Appellant’s pointing out, the police recovered two knives from the same room. The axe, initially seen in the Appellant’s hand, was also seized. Recovery memos (Ex. Ka-7, Ka-8, and Ka-9) pertaining to the axe, knives, blood-stained clothes, and soil samples were prepared by PW-5 in the presence of witnesses, including PW-3 (Shri Visheshwar Nath Mishra).

3.6 Condition of the Deceased & Panchayatnama: PW-5 prepared separate inquest reports (panchayatnama) for each of the five deceased. Photographs were taken, and blood-stained soil as well as plain soil samples were collected from the place of occurrence. The bodies were dispatched for postmortem examination at the District Women Hospital, Faizabad, between 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. on 12.11.2011.

3.7 Postmortem Findings (PW-4, Dr. S.K. Shukla): Multiple incised and lacerated wounds were found on each deceased victim-indicating that at least one sharp-edged weapon (axe/knives) had been used. Some injuries also suggested blunt force or wide-edged impact, but overall, the ca