IMPORTANT POINT
The judgment emphasizes the requirement for circumstantial evidence to be conclusive and consistent to establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

JUDGMENT ON BOARD

Sanjay K. Agrawal, J.

1. The present Criminal Appeal under Section 374(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (in short ‘CrPC’) has been preferred by the three Appellants herein i.e., A-1 Jaswant Dewar, A-2 Rajkumar Pal and A-3 Ajuba Dewar, assailing Judgment & Order dated 16.10.2015 passed by learned Second Additional Sessions Judge, Durg (in short ‘Trial Court’) in Sessions Case No.190/2014, by which each of them has been convicted for the offences punishable under Sections 382, 460 and 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code (in short ‘IPC’) and sentenced as under:-

Facts of the case, in brief:

2. The three Appellants herein were tried before the Trial Court for the aforesaid offences under Sections 382, 460 & 302/34 of IPC on the charges that on 1.8.2014 at about 12 O’clock in the midnight, in furtherance of their common intention, they committed trespass by entering into an under construction Maruti showroom situated at bypass road, Khapri Khar, Anjora within the jurisdiction of Police Station Pulgaon and in the course of which, caused death of two guards, Bahur Singh Thakur and Ashwani Kumar Dewangan, who were on their night duty at the said Maruti showroom, by use of hammer and iron jointer and thereafter stole iron jointers, aluminum strips etc., total amounting to Rs.20,000/-, thereby committed the aforesaid offences.

3. The matter was reported by PW-1 Hariram Sinha, who also said to have been working as a guard in the said under construction Maruti showroom. According to him, on 2.8.2014, he attended his duty at 7:00 am and during the course of his duty when he reached at the spot, he found ensanguined dead-bodies of two guards, Bahur Singh Thakur and Ashwani Kumar Dewangan, lying there covered with pant, shirt and bicycle. He informed the incident to PW-2 Bhupendra Singh Thakur (PW-2), son of deceased Bahur Singh Thakur, who came to the spot and identified the dead body of his father and then the matter was reported to the police. Dehati Nalishi was prepared by Exhibit P-1 and Sketch Map of the occurrence site was prepared vide Exhibit P-28. Dehati Merg Intimations were recorded vide Exhibits P-2 & P-3 in respect of deceased Bahur Singh Thakur and Ashwani Kumar Dewangan and sent to Police Station Pulgaon where Merg Intimations were recorded vide Exhibits P-44 & P-45 and FIR was registered vide Exhibit P-12. Witnesses were summoned vide Exhibit P-24 and Inquest Panchnama was prepared vide Exhibit P-25. Vide Exhibit P-26, blood-soaked & plain soil and bicycle were seized from the place of incident. Similarly, vide Exhibit P-29, torches, an iron jointer, shawls etc., were recovered from the spot.

4. Dead-bodies of two deceased persons were subjected to post-mortem. PW-16 Dr. B.N. Dewangan, conducted post-mortem examination of deceased Ashwani Kumar Dewangan vide Exhibit P-15(A) and opined his cause of death to be due to ante-mortem head injuries and the nature of death to be homicidal. Similarly, PW-14 Dr. R.K. Nayak conducted post-mortem examination of deceased Bahur Singh Thakur vide Exhibit P-51(B) in which his cause of death has been opined to be shock due to extensive head and visceral injur