The conviction for murder was upheld based on consistent testimonies of child witnesses and corroborative medical evidence, establishing guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

JUDGMENT

Anish Dayal, J. The above captioned appeals impugn the judgment dated 25th April, 2016 whereby the appellants have been convicted for offence punishable under Section 302/307/34 IPC and order on sentence dated 26th April, 2016 being sentenced to life imprisonment with a fine of Rs.25,000/- each and in default of payment of fine to undergo 1 year imprisonment for the offence punishable under Section 302 IPC/Section 34 IPC. Both the appellants were also sentenced to 10 year imprisonment with a fine of Rs.10,000/- each and in default of payment of fine to undergo 6 months imprisonment for the offence punishable under Section 307 IPC/Section 34 IPC, both sentences to run concurrently.

The Incident:

2. The facts in brief as culled from the documents and trial court's record are as under:

(i) As per the prosecution, a call with a DD No.8 (A) was received at PS Nihal Vihar and the consequently, the police team reached No.8, Yadav Park Extension, Kamruddin Nagar, Najafgarh Road, Delhi where it transpired that the injured had been removed to Satya Bhama Hospital. When the police reached the hospital they found a deceased aged lady (Smt. Krishna Devi) and a young child (Miss. Nancy) with no cardiac activity. They also found two other children `I' and `R' under treatment. MLCs were duly collected and the statement of `I' was recorded.

(ii) `I' in her statement mentioned that she was nine years of age and residing at the address mentioned above with her father, mother, brother and sister. On the evening prior, her parents had gone to the house of her aunt in neighbouring Haryana and her grandmother Krishna, her sister Nancy, brother `R' and a cousin `A' were present at home and were preparing to sleep. At about 10:30 pm her cousin `A's' brother-in-law (appellant no.1) and appellant no.1's brother (appellant no.2), who used to come to their house, had come on that particular day as well. After tea, all of them slept in the inside room while `A' slept in the outer room.

(iii) While the three children Nancy, `R' and `I' slept on the double bed, the grandmother Krishna slept on the cot and the two appellants slept on the small bed. Sometime during the night `I' heard her grandmother screaming and she saw appellant no.1 strangulating the neck of the grandmother with the cloth while appellant no.2 had put a pillow on the mouth of the grandmother to suffocate her. `I' stated she was scared and did not open her eyes and after sometime, the screams of the grandmother subsided. Thereafter appellant no.1 held tight the mouth and neck of Nancy and also started pressing her mouth with a pillow. When `I' started to protest, the appellant no.1 caught hold of her neck and started pressing it. `I' managed to run away from the room and came to the room where `A' was sleeping and narrated the entire story to `A'. On this `A' went to the room where the appellants were and tried to switch on the light but the appellants shouted at him to switch it off. `A' asked them what they were doing, and they replied that since the children were having bad dreams, they were "treating" them. Later, `A' went upstairs and was followed by the appellants and they could not find `A'. `I' was inside the room of `A' having bolted the door from inside which the appellants tried to open but could not and then they left the house. At about 4 am when they opened the door of the inside room they found that grandmother Krishna and Nancy were unconscious and her brother `R' was also scared and had injuries on his eyes and neck.

(iv) `A' made a phone call to his uncle `RL' who reached their house immediately and took the injured to the hospital where Nancy and Krishn