R. K. GAUBA, J.

1. The spectre of "custody death" raises its ugly head yet again in the case at hand, bringing under cloud the claim of our polity that the State guarantees, to one and all, a civil society truly wedded to the normative of rule of law.

2. The four appellants stood trial in the court of additional sessions Judge in Sessions Case no. 73/96 on the basis of the report under section 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 ("CrPC"), submitted on conclusion of investigation into the first information report ("FIR") no. 72/92 of the police station Welcome, on the charge for offences punishable under section 342 read with section 34 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 ("IPC"), section 330 read with section 34 IPC and section 302 read with section 34 IPC, the gravamen being that, in furtherance of their common intention, they had wrongfully confined Darshan Singh, after having picked him up on the night intervening 10th and 11th of March 1992 from his house no. K- 463 New Seelampur, Delhi, assaulting him intentionally and causing injuries to him in order to extract a confession to such an extent as to result in his death. By judgment dated 15 February 2000, the trial Cour