The court upheld the conviction for double murder but commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment, emphasizing the need for special reasons for capital punishment and considering the possibility of reformation.

JUDGMENT :

NARESH KUMAR CHANDRAVANSHI, J.

1. Criminal appeal No. 507/2023 has been preferred by the appellant/accused Sandeep Jain against the impugned judgment of conviction and order of Sentence passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Durg in Sessions trial No. 56/2018 dated 23-01-2023, whereby he has been convicted and sentenced as under:

1.1 Criminal appeal No. 272/2023 has been preferred by the appellant/accused Bhagat Singh Gurudutta and Shailendra Sagar against the above judgment, whereby they have been convicted and sentenced as under:

2. The learned Additional Sessions Judge, Durg under the provisions of Section 366(1) of the Cr.P.C. after passing the sentence of death to Accused Sandeep Jain, submitted the proceedings to this Court for its confirmation and this is how this death reference No. 1/2023 is before us for consideration.

PROSECUTION STORY

3. The prosecution story in brief is as follows:

3.1 Accused Sandeep Jain is the son of deceased Rawalmal Jain and Surji Bai, and other accused Bhagat Singh Gurudatta and Shailendra Sagar are associates of accused Sandeep Jain. Complaintant Saurabh Golchha on 01.01.2018 at 06:25 am, informed the police of Police Station-Durg to the effect that, he received a call from Mobile No. 94064 19291 of his maternal grandmother/Nani Surjibai in his Mobile No. 70002 91510 at 05:54 am that something has happened to his maternal grandfather/Nana, a sound has come, and she called him quickly to the house at Ganjpara, Durg then the complainant immediately went to Ganjpara, in his car. He reached his maternal grandmother’s house, where he saw that the outside and inside doors were open. When the complainant went inside the house, he saw that his maternal grand father/Nana (hereinafter referred to as ‘Nana’) was shot dead lying at corridor near bathroom and his maternal grand mother/Nani (hereinafter referred to as ‘Nani’) was lying dead on the bed, she had also been shot dead by someone. Merg No. 1/2018 regarding death of Surji Bai was recorded vide Ex.P-28 and merg No. 2/2018 regarding death of Ravalmal Jain was recorded vide Ex.P-29 at 6.15 and 6.20 am respectively. FIR No. 1/2018 was registered at 6.25 am vide Ex.P-27 for offence under Section 302 of IPC. Inquest reports of the dead body of Surji Bai and Ravalmal Jain were prepared vide Ex.P-32 and P-33 respectively. As per inquest, it was found that Surji Bai and Rawalmal Jain were killed by bullet injuries. Rawalmal Jain’s body was lying on the corridor near the bathroom and Surji Bai’s body was lying in a pool of blood on the bed in the room. Rawalmal Jain had bullet marks on his back and Surji Bai had bullet wounds on her left chest, near the elbow of her right hand and on the head. Both the dead bodies were sent to the District Hospital, Durg for post-mortem. After post-mortem, the bodies were handed over to brother of the deceased, Bhikhamchand Jain. Spot Map Ex.P-63 and site map vide Ex.P-64 have been prepared.

3.2 During the investigation, videography and photography of the residence of the deceased was done. During the inspection of the spot, empty bullet shells, cotton and blood soaked cotton found around the dead bodies of the deceased Surji Bai and Rawalmal Jain were seized in front of the witnesses. The seized material was sealed on the spot. One Blood stained bullet, two empty ca