S. MURALIDHAR, J.

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Death Sentence Reference No.1/2016 arises out of the judgment dated 14th July, 2016 of the Additional Sessions Judge-05 (South), Saket Courts, New Delhi in S.C.No.30/2014 arising out of FIR No.69/2009 registered at P.S. Vasant Vihar convicting three accused, Ravi Kapoor (A-1), Amit Shukla (A-2) and Baljeet Malik @ Poppy (A-3) for the offences under Sections 364/302/201/394/468/471/482/34 IPC and convicting A-1 additionally for the offence under Section 25 of the Arms Act. The reference is consequential upon the order on sentence dated 22nd August, 2016 whereby for the offences under Section 302 IPC both A-1 and A-2 were sentenced to death.

1.2 The three accused have filed individual appeals questioning their conviction by the aforementioned judgment for the said offences and the order on sentence whereby as far as Baljeet @ Poppy (A-3) is concerned, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the offence under Section 302 of the IPC and fine of Rs. 10,000/-.

1.3 A-1 was also sentenced to fine of Rs. 20,000/- for the offence under Section 302 IPC and in default to undergo simple imprisonment (SI) for six months and A-2 to a fine of Rs. 1 lakh and in default to undergo SI for six months.

1.4 For the offence under Section 364 of the IPC all three accused were sentenced to imprisonment for life; A-1 was sentenced to fine of Rs. 10,000, A-2 to fine of Rs. 1 lakh and A-3 to fine of Rs. 2 lacs and in default each of them to undergo SI for six months.

1.5 For the offence under Section 201 IPC all the three accused were sentenced to 7 years SI and fine of Rs. 10,000/- and in default to undergo SI for 6 months.

1.6 For the offence under Section 394 IPC, all the three accused were sentenced to imprisonment for life and fine or Rs. 50,000/- and in default to undergo SI for six months.

1.7 For the offence under Section 468 IPC all the three accused were sentenced to imprisonment for 7 years with the fine of Rs. 20,000/- and in default to undergo SI for six months. For the offence under Section 471 IPC, all the three accused were sentenced to SI for two years.

1.8 For the offence under Section 482 IPC, all the three accused were sentenced to imprisonment for one year. For the offence under Section 25 of the Arms Act, A-1 was sentenced to SI for 2 years and fine of Rs. 10,000/- and in default to undergo SI for 2 months. All sentences were directed to run concurrently. The sentence awarded to A-1 under Section 25 of the Arms Act was directed to run consecutively.

Case of the prosecution

2. The case of the prosecution is that Jigisha Ghosh, the deceased, the 28 year old daughter of Mr. J.N. Ghosh (PW-1) was working as Operations Manager in Hewitt Associates Private Limited for a period of 5 years prior to her death. An office cab used to pick up and drop the deceased. On 17th March, 2009 at around 12 noon, the deceased left her house in the office cab. She was expected to return home at 4 am on 18th March, 2009. When she failed to return from her office, PW-1 initially presumed that she had overstayed at the office as she had done on some occasions in the past. However, when the office cab came to the house of PW-1 the following day at about 3 pm to pick her up, PW-1 realised that the deceased had not stayed in the office and in fact the office cab had dropped her back on the previous night. PW-1 then called the office of the deceased but no information as to her whereabouts was forthcoming. Mr. Jerry Joseph (PW-5), a senior colleague of the deceased at her work place, visited the house of PW-1 but could not provide any clue. When PW-1 called the deceased on her mobile phone, it was switched off.

3. On 19th March 2009, PW-1 inquired from the HDFC Bank and was informed that from the ATM account of the deceased, a sum of Rs. 25,000/- was withdrawn on 18th March, 2009. It was further revealed that articles worth Rs. 70,000/- had been purchased from different places using the debit card of the deceased. PW-1 suspecte