IMPORTANT POINT
In cases relying on circumstantial evidence, the prosecution must establish a complete chain of circumstances that are consistent with the guilt of the accused and inconsistent with their innocence.

JUDGMENT :

Per Ramesh Sinha, Chief Justice

1. Since the above-captioned appeals have arisen out of one and same judgment and since common question of fact and law is involved in these appeals, they have been heard together and are being disposed of by this common judgment.

2. These criminal appeals preferred under Section 374(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (for short, ‘CrPC’) are directed against the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 11.10.2021 passed by the learned Sixth Additional Sessions Judge, Raipur (C.G.) in Sessions Trial No. 159/2018, by which the appellants have been convicted for offences punishable under Sections 302/34 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code (for short ‘the IPC’) sentenced them to undergo life imprisonment and fine of Rs.5,000/-, in default of payment of fine, one year additional R.I. (each appellants) and rigorous imprisonment for 07 years and fine of Rs. 1,000/-, in default of payment of fine, three months additional R.I. (each appellants) with a direction to run both the sentences concurrently.

3. The prosecution's case, in brief, is that on 16.04.2018, complainant Manoj Pandey lodged a Dehati Nalishi (Ex.P-3) before DD Nagar Police Station, Raipur that he lives with his family in Om Society Sundar Nagar House No. 28. His house is two storeyed and he lives with his family in the ground floor. There are two blocks on the first floor. Rakesh Pandey lives on rent in one block. The second block is vacant. There are two single rooms on the second floor. Amrit Sharma lives in one room and Rahul lives on rent in the other room for the last one and a half years. On 16.04.2018, at around 05:00 a.m., Harishchandra Nirmalkar of the locality informed his wife Sangeeta Pandey over phone that there is a crowd near his house and may be someone has been beaten up. His wife told him about it. When he went out of the house, he met with tenant Amrit Sharma. He told that at night, 4-5 unknown boys came to the upper room and tied him and his brother Prakash Sharma's hands and feet with a cloth and took them to the room of Rahul, beat him up and locked the door from outside and fled. He opened the door and came back. He told them that Prakash has to be taken to the hospital, then when he called 108 ambulance, call was connected to Madhya Pradesh, it took 5-10 minutes to transfer the call to Chhattisgarh. When the ambulance did not arrive, he came to Sundar Nagar Chowk with the residents of the locality for the doctors of the locality. When 108 ambulance was found at the Chowk, he came back with them. On checking by the ambulance doctor, Prakash Sharma was declared dead. It seems to have been murdered by some unknown person. On the report of the above, a Dehati Merg Intimation at Crime No. 0/18 was registered and on the basis same, First Information Report No.129/2018 was registered vide Ex.P-33 by Police Station DD Nagar on 16.04.2018 against the unknown accused under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and investigation was done.

4. Investigating officer left for scene of occurrence and after summoning the witnesses vide Ex.P-5, inquest over the dead body of the deceased was prepared vide Ex.P-6 and the dead body of the deceased was sent to Mekahara Hospital, Raipur for conducting postmortem vide Ex.P-32, wherein postmortem was conducted by Dr. Shivnarayan Manjhi (PW-14) and Dr. O.P. Tandon vide Ex.P-21 and found following injuries over the dead body of the deceased :

(i) A horizontal contusion wound of size 2 x 0.5 cm on the anterior part of the upper lip;

(ii) A contusion wound of size 1 x 1 cm on the tip of the nose, on cutting which blood was collected in the nasal septum;

(iii) Three contusion wounds of 1 cm width present on both wrists and around the forearm;

(iv) Injuries on the dorsum of both ears and a contusion of size 2 x 2 cm was present on the right scapular region.

(v) Redness due to injury on the left parietal and temporal part of the head.

All injuries were caused by hard and blun