Circumstantial evidence must form an unbroken chain pointing solely to the guilt of the accused; confessions made in police custody are inadmissible unless they lead to the discovery of facts.

JUDGMENT :

ILESH J. VORA, J.

1. Since the facts of the case and issue involved in all the appeals are identical and arise out of the same judgment and therefore, all these appeals are taken up together and are being disposed of by this common judgment.

2. Vide judgment and order dated 23.05.2016 passed in Sessions Case No. 94 of 2014, the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Ahmedabad convicted and sentenced the appellants accused for the offences punishable under Sections 452, 397, 302 read with Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code and Section 135 of the Gujarat Police Act, 1951. The sentence awarded is tabulated hereunder:

3. The case of the prosecution leading to file these conviction appeals is as follows:

3.1 The appellants accused namely – Rajesh Kachchhi, Ravi Vaghela, Dinesh Marwadi along with deceased accused Dinesh Makwana came to be tried for the offences punishable under Sections 452, 397, 302 read with Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code.

3.2 According to case of the prosecution, on 13.09.2013, at about 12-30 noon, the accused had alleged to have killed deceased Satnam Kaur aged about 65 by entering illegally in the flat where the deceased was lived with intention to robbed her valuables. The deceased was killed by strangulation as well as hitting her head with the weapon hammer.

3.3 The details of the prosecution case as follows:

Deceased Satnam Kaur aged about 65, found in blood of pool in her flat namely ‘Abhivrudhi flat’ , near Income Tax, Ahmedabad and she was virtually dead. The daughter of the deceased PW-1 Tarunaben came to know that her mother despite of repeated calls, made by her, was not responding. The daughter, through neighbour inquired about her mother and she came to know that, her mother lying in pool of blood and having sustained fatal injuries over her head. She rushed to the place of incident. She informed the Naranpura Police and after preliminary inquiry, she disclosed the FIR Exh. 16 before PW-20, PI – Mr. H.K. Rana, inter-alia, stating that, any time before 12-30 noon dated 13.09.2013, the unknown persons entered the house with an intention of robbing her mother and she was fatally injured on her head with hammer and strangulated her to death. The PW-1 had further disclosed in her FIR that the unknown persons robbed the golden chain of her mother and silver rings with some cash amount allegedly kept by her in the cupboard. The offence was registered with Naranpura Police Station against the unknown persons for the act of robbery and murder.

3.4 The Investigation proceeded further by the PW-20.He prepared inquest panchnama and sent the dead body for postmortem and in the presence of Forensic Officer as well as independent witnesses, drew a panchnama of place of occurrence and seized the material articles like the blood stained hammer, the handwritten chit, whereupon, the measurement of window was mentioned, the blood samples for chemical analysis and also recorded the statement of the material witnesses.

3.5 On 16.09.2013, PW-18 Babubhai Desai, Police Inspector, Crime Branch, Ahmedabad, received authentic information that the accused appellant Raju Kachchhi, and accused Dinesh Makwana @ Koko, were involve