JUDGMENT :

JOYMALYA BAGCHI, J.

1. Death reference and criminal appeal have arisen out of the judgment and order dated 25.06.2019 and 29.06.2019 passed by learned Additional Sessions Judge, 1st Court, Siliguri, Darjeeling in Sessions Case No. 01(01) of 2016 corresponding to Sessions Trial No. 08 of 2016 convicting the appellants for commission of offence punishable under sections 302/392/411 of the Indian Penal Code read with section 34 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced them to death.

Prosecution Case:

2. Prosecution case levelled against the appellants is as follows:

One Pradip Bardhan and his wife Dipti Bardhan and their son Prasenjit Bardhan used to reside at Lelinpur, Shibmandir under Matigara Police Station. Renovation work was going on in their house for sometime. One and half months prior to the incident, one Mithun Malakar (PW-8) was entrusted with furniture work in the house. He commissioned the work through the appellants. Painting work was also going on in the house. On 15.09.2015 around 9-9:30 a.m. one Biswajit Mondal (PW-5) heard the painters were crying “something has happened, something has happened.” He rushed to the house of Pradip. He found the dead bodies of Dipti and Prasenjit in the sitting room on the ground floor. Reshmi Sen (PW-1), married daughter of Pradip was informed. She rushed to the spot. She found the dead bodies of her mother and brother in the sitting room of the ground floor. She also found the dead body of her father in the bathroom of the first floor. She found rope marks around the neck of her mother. She also found a coconut rope tied around the face and neck of her father and a bed sheet was fastened around her brother’s neck. She became senseless. Police arrived at the spot. Upon regaining her senses, Reshmi lodged written complaint which resulted in registration of Matigara Police Station Case No. 580/15 dated 15.09.2015 under section 302 IPC.

3. In the course of investigation, it came to light that a Micromax mobile set belonging to Prasenjit and two mobile sets, i.e. a Samsung mobile set with touch screen and a Samsung mobile set with keypad belonging to Pradip had been stolen. Almirah in the house had been broken and gold ornaments and cash were missing. Investigating officer, Nitesh Lama (PW-28) tracked the SIM cards of Pradip Bardhan and Prasenjit Bardhan. SIM card numbers of Pradip were 9232693297 and 9932902053 (which was used by Dipti). SIM card number of Prasenjit was 8145186839.

4. In the course of investigation, investigation officer (PW-28) tracked the International Mobile Equipment Identity number (“IMEI” for short) of the hand sets in which the aforesaid SIM cards had been used. He noted that the SIM card of Pradip Bardhan i.e. 9232693297 was used in the mobile hand set bearing IMEI No. 355681050920873 (shown as IMEI No. 355681050920870 in CDRs). Another SIM card bearing No. 8159929187 was also used in the said handset on 14.09.2015 at 22:47:54 hours. The subsequent SIM card was registered in the name of one Sahadeb Barman of Tarijot. It may be pertinent to note one of the stolen mobile phones of Pradip Bardhan bore IMEI No. 355681050920873.

5. On 17.09.2015, PW-28 conducted raid in the residence of Sahadeb Barman. He recovered three mobile phones as follows:

(i) 01 (one) Samsung Mobile phone having Model No. GT-C 3303I and IMEI No. 3563631/04/190911/6 with battery and without SIM card.

(ii) 01 (one) Hitech Mobile phone having IMEI No. 911402250241383 and 911402250241391 with battery and one SIM card of Airtel having No. 8159929187.

(iii) 01 (one) Hitech Mobile phone (X-105) having IMEI Nos. 911342000623847 and 9113420001126345 with battery and a SIM card of Vodafone company.

6. Thereafter, raid was held in the house of Dipu Sutradhar. He recovered the following mobile phones:

(i) 01 (one) Mobile phone of Micromax company having Model No. A106 and IMEI Nos. 911391305054885 and