Convictions based on circumstantial evidence must establish a reliable chain linking the accused to the crime beyond reasonable doubt.

JUDGMENT :

RAMESH SINHA, C.J .

1. The appellant has preferred this criminal appeal under Section 374 (2) of the CrPC questioning the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 26.11.2020 (wrongly mentioned in the impugned judgment as 26.11.2022) passed by the 14^th Additional Sessions Judge, Raipur in Sessions Trial No.31/2020, by which he has been convicted and sentenced in the following manner with a direction to run all sentences concurrently :-

2. The prosecution case, in brief, is that on the information of Chandrakant Nishad, on 10.10.2019, Head Constable Bhagirathi Bhoi registered a Rural Death Intimation No. 0/2019 on receipt of information about the death of deceased Dulaurin Bai, Sonu Nishad and Sanjay Nishad. On the said case intimation, Inspector Manish Singh Parihar registered case intimation number 97/2019 in respect of deceased Smt. Dulaurin Bai Nishad, case number 98/2019 in respect of deceased Sonu Nishad and case number 99/2019 in respect of deceased Sanjay Nishad, all residents of village Bana, police station Urla, District Raipur. On the case investigation panchnama proceedings, it was found that between 9 pm on 09.10.2019 and 5 am on 10.10.2019, all the three were killed by an unknown person in the house of the deceased by hitting them on the head with a solid heavy object causing fatal injuries and later, with the aim of hiding the evidence, the bodies of all the three were burnt by placing them on a cot in a room inside the house of the deceased at the incident spot. Crime was registered against unknown persons under section 302, 201 IPC and investigation proceedings were carried out in the case.

3. During the course of investigation of the case, suspect Chandrakant Nishad was brought to the police station for interrogation. After reaching the scene of crime, accused Chandrakant Nishad was interrogated in front of witnesses Janak Nishad and Bhola Ram Sahu and his memorandum statement was taken, in which accused Chandrakant Nishad accepted to have committed the crime and told that the wooden stick and the clothes of deceased Sonu Nishad were thrown on the bank of the river as the weapon used in the crime. On the basis of the said memorandum statement, after reaching the spot, a wooden stick used in the crime and the clothes of deceased Sonu Nishad were recovered from the bank of Kharun river near village Bana on the indication of the accused and seized in front of witnesses. A kerosene jerrycan was searched at the scene of crime and at the places mentioned by the accused when it was not found, a search panchnama was prepared. The TVS Jupiter number CG 04-LT- 8594 used by accused Chandrakant in the crime was seized in front of witnesses. When bloodstains were seen on the pink checked T-shirt worn by accused Chandrakant at the time of the incident, it was seized in front of witnesses as evidence.

4. The accused Chandrakant Nishad was arrested on 11.10.2019 as sufficient evidence was found against him to have committed the crime under Section 302 , 201 IPC. After the investigation was completed, the crime was found to be proven against the accused and chargesheet number 421/19 was prepared for trial and it was presented in the Court Judicial Magistrate