The prosecution must establish the circumstances and evidence beyond reasonable doubt to convict the accused.

S. Muralidhar, J.

1. This appeal is directed against a judgment dated 29th April 2017 of Additional Sessions Judge (Central) (‘ASJ’), Tis Hazari Courts in Sessions Case No.27977/2016 arising out of FIR No.166/2014 registered at Police Station (‘PS’) Timarpur convicting the Appellants, Sandeep Singh Bhandari (A3) and Krishan Kumar (A4) for the offence under Sections 302/34 IPC for committing the murder of Deepak (deceased).

2. The appeal also challenges the order on sentence dated 4th May 2017 whereby, for the offence under Sections 302/34 IPC, each of the Appellants were sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment (‘RI’) for life and pay a fine of Rs.5,000/- and, in default of payment of fine, to undergo RI for a further three months. By the same order, for the offence under Section 25 Arms Act, A4 was sentenced to undergo RI for a period of six months and pay a fine of Rs.3,000/ and, in default of payment of fine, to undergo RI for one month.

Police investigation

3. The case began with a call received in the Police Control Room (‘PCR’) at 8.08 am on 15th March 2014 from one Khursheed Khan, resident of Rajeev Gandhi Nagar, Mustafabad, Delhi that a dead body was lying behind the Jal Board at Nehru Vihar in the jurisdiction of PS Timarpur. The said PCR form (Ex.PW-14/A) also sets out the periodic reports received from the PCR Vans that reached the spot.

4. There was a report at 8.34 am confirming that the call was true and that “DJB ke nale me pani ke andaer ek d/body padi hai LP moka par hai. Wait for details.” There is a report at 9.30 am indicating that the Crime Team had reached the spot. At 9.59 am, the report was that the dead body had been taken out of the naala and had been identified by Yogender (PW-2), son of Udhay Singh, resident of B-28, Gandhi Vihar who was preparing for his UPSC examination and who had stated that the dead body was of his friend, Deepak Kashyap. At 10.41 am, the report was that the deceased had been checked by the Crime Team and it had pointed out that there were five knife injury points on the chest and neck and that PW-2 had disclosed that “Hum dono v do dost aur the. Raat ko drink karne ke baad Mukherji Nagar main ghumne gaye the uske baad Deepak hum se miss ho gaya aur uske baad kya hua hame nahi pata hai”. The report also noted that the SHO with the staff was also at the spot. There is a further report at 10.49 am that “Deepak shaam ko Jammu Tawi train se kal 7 pm per unke room per aaya tha”. The report at 11.15 am is that SHO has taken PW-2 with him.

5. As far as the police at PS Timarpur are concerned, Sub-Inspector (‘SI’) Sanjay (PW12) received the information about the dead body lying behind the DJB at Nehru Vihar at 8.10 am and this was reduced to writing as D.D.No.10A (Ex.PW1/A). He went at the spot and noticed a male dead body aged 20-25 years lying in the drain. He then passed on the information to the SHO who along with the police staff reached the spot. The crime team was also called there. According to PW12 “The blood was lying on the leaves of urandi tree. Some blood was lying at the spot. Some blood was lying at the spot.”

6. The crime team reached report noted the date and time of examination as 15th March, 2014 from 9.10 to 9.40 am At the scene of crime, it noticed that the dead body of an unknown male deceased is found inside a water flowing naala of 2 ft. 4 inch width. The dead body was broader than the naala and found to be fully wet. Injury marks of stab wounds were found on chest and on upper spinal cord. The crime team’s advice to the Investigating Officer (IO) was inter alia “i) to preserve the dead body of unknown deceased at mortuary and make efforts to establish the identity of the deceased person, ii) to get the post mortem of the deceased conducted to ascertain the exact time and cause of death.”

7. Inspector R. K. Meena (PW19), who was the IO of the case, also reached the spot along with the SHO and staff. According to him, S.I. Sanjay (PW-12) recorded the statemen