The main legal point established in the judgment is the requirement for the prosecution to present sufficient and reliable evidence to establish the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt in criminal cases.

P. K. BHASIN, J.

( 1 ) CONVICTION of the trio of a father and his two sons for the murder of three persons during the night of 24th and 25th of October, 1998 vide judgment dated 1/10/2004 and imposition of death sentence upon the father and life imprisonment upon the two sons vide order dated 6/10/2004 passed by the additional Sessions Judge, Delhi in Sessions case No. 74/2000 pertaining to FIR no. 1042/98 of Malviya Nagar police station has led to the making of a reference to this Court by the trial Court for confirmation of the sentence of death and filing of two appeals by the convicted trio of father and two sons. The Death Reference and the two appeals were taken up together for hearing and all are now being disposed of by this common judgment.

( 2 ) THE case of the prosecution as put up before the trial Court is as follows: on 24. 10. 98 SI Virendra Jain (PW-29) received DD No. 29 regarding murder of a Cbowkidar at F-4d, Saket on which he along with SI Satish Kumar, HC rohtash and Ct. Yogesh Kumar reached the spot and found a dead body, whose name was revealed to be Narendra Singh from the purse kept in his pocket and was lying on the stairs leading to flat Nos. F-4c and F-4d. As per further prosecution case there were wounds on the head of the deceased caused by sharp-edged weapon. There was blood on the stairs. Near the stair case at a distance of 50-60 yards near the wall of Kuradan a polythene bag was lying which contained a uniform shirt of A. P. Securities, having written on its arm 'security APS' and one pant of Coca-cola colour, a note book having written on its first Page "pushpraj kapoor Singh, Father's name, Arvind Pratap Singh, Village Poora Kalan, District etawah (UP), present address H. No. 354, Kalyanwas, Super Market, Delhi-91. Near that polythene bag one blood stained shirt was also found.

( 3 ) SI Virender Jain also found a dead body of a lady aged about 25-26 years in the small park on the east side of Flat No. F-4b in front of flat No. F-5b. There was an injury on her head caused by some sharp weapon and blunt object. It appeared to the Sub-Inspector that after committing murder of that lady somewhere else dead body had been thrown there and also that both the murders had been committed in the same incident. There was a telephone pocket diary belonging to pushpraj Kapoor lying near the dead body of the lady and there was also an identity card of Pushpraj of A. P. Securities Pvt. Ltd. besides other papers in a purse which was also lying there. The name of that lady was found to be Namita. Since it appeared to be a case of murder SI Virender Singh sent a Rukka (Ex. PW-29/a) to the police station, Saket for registration of murder case under Section 302, IPC. Accordingly FIR No. 1042/98 (Ex. PW-9/a) was registered at 2. 25 a. m. on 25. 10. 98. Search was then started for the said Pushpraj Kapoor. In the evening on 25. 10. 98 in the jungle of Pushp Vihar, sector-5, (which place as per the investigating Officer PW-29 SI Virender Jain was 1 kms. away from the place where other two dead bodies were found) a dead body in burnt condition was found which appeared to be of a young boy. The dead body was identified by one Santosh S/o chandra Muni, R/o 707 Sector-5, Pushp Vihar, Delhi, a friend of the deceased, to be that of Pushpraj Kapoor Singh. Inquest proceedings were conducted and later on post-mortem examination of the three dead bodies was also got conducted. Blood stained clothes of the deceased and other articles seized from the places where the dead bodies were found were sent to Forensic Scientific Laboratory from where later on FSL reports were obtained.

( 4 ) DURING investigation it was found that the deceased Narender and Pushpraj were security guards of A. P. Securities at H. No. F-4c, SFS Flats, Saket and deceased Namita was working as a maid servant in several houses there. Pushpraj was living in the house of Ramesh Chand Verma (who is now one of the three convicted accused) in Lado Sarai and