( 1 ) PREM Shankar Sachhan alias Prem Shankar Thakur, aged about 22 years of village Nonaptor, District Kanpur (U. P.), stands convicted under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code for having committed the murder of Smt. Ved Khanna, aged about 53 years, on the night between 5th and 6th October, 1977, at her residence at No. 89, Darya Ganj, Delhi. The sentence awarded was imprisonment for life. He was also sentenced under section 342 I. P. C. for having wrongfully confined her maternal grand-son Sumedh Bhardwaj (P. W. 1) in a room of the said house to two months rigorous imprisonment.

( 2 ) THE prosecution case has been that Mr. P. L. Khanna (P. W. 12) and his wife late Smt. Ved Khanna resided at No. 89 Darya Ganj, Delhi. They had a retenu of employees attending to house-hold and other duties. Their son Sharan Khanna (P. W. 13) also resided in the same property, but he had separate set of servants. On the night of occurrence, be was not at Delhi but had gone to Bombay. His employee Narinder Singh alias Nainu (P. W. 4), however, was left behind in the house.

( 3 ) SHRI P. L. Khanna has a daughter who had gone to Chicago, U. S. A. , to join her husband there some months be