The judgment highlights the importance of admissible evidence, the inadmissibility of confessions made to police officers, and the need for conclusive circumstantial evidence to establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

Ajay Mohan Goel, J.

1. By way of this appeal, the appellant-State has challenged judgment passed by the Court of learned Sessions Judge, Solan, dated 16.02.2010, in Sessions Trial No. 21-NL/7 of 2008, vide which, learned trial Court has acquitted the accused therein for offences punishable under Sections 302, 364, 404, 201 read with Section 34 I.P.C.

2. The case of the prosecution was that Nisha wife of Dila Ram was found missing during the intervening night of 19/20.03.2007 from her residence in village Khil-Khokhla falling in jurisdiction Police Station, Ram Shahar, Tehsil Nalagarh, District Solan. She was putting up in her house alongwith her three children, as her husband Dila Ram was working as a labourer in Calcutta. She was not having good relations with the accused and their family members. On account of holidays in school, deceased had sent her children to her parental house one day prior to her disappearance. When her parents came to know about her disappearance, they informed the husband of deceased telephonically. As instructed by Dila Ram, the house was opened and the cattle was freed, which was unattended in the cattle shed. This was followed by search of the deceased by her father and other relatives but she could not be traced. Missing report was lodged with the police. Dila Ram arrived from Calcutta and on the basis of a report made by him, FIR No. 30/2007 was registered under Section 365 at Police Station. On suspicion, A-1 Shayam Lal and other accused were arrested on the premise that Shayam Lal was having illicit relation with the deceased and he kept on visiting her despite objections of family members. As per prosecution, matter was taken note of by the residents of the area. They informed the police regarding the said conduct of the deceased that she was of loose character and lot of people used to visit her and residents apprehended that some untoward incident may take place. Shayam Lal was directed not to visit her. Deceased had also been provided a mobile phone by A-1 on which she used to converse with him. There was also land line telephone at her residence. Police discovered that accused after hatching a conspiracy to eliminate the deceased took her to jungle during night time. This was done on the pretext that they will apprehend Kamal as well as Narain accused, who used to fell Kher trees in order to revenge the excise case which had been planted against her and on the basis of which, a complaint was also lodged. During night time, when the deceased was accompanying Shayam Lal, he throttled her to death. Thereafter, he called Mohinder and Narain who accompanied him to jungle to dispose of the body. The dead body was thrown in a well known as “Jharni Moorh Kuan” near Jogon. After 20 days, the dead body was found floating in the well by accused. The dead body was cut into pieces and was dumped in the well in two gunny bags by A-1 accompanied by other accused. After about six months, husband of deceased heard the accused discussing while consuming liquor that they had succeeded in eliminating the deceased and by now her bones must have decomposed. The husband of the deceased thereafter went to the well alongwith other people and gunny bag was found floating. The matter was reported to the police and on the next day, the gunny bag was taken out, in which there were body parts. Later on after getting the well dried up, the remaining parts of the body were taken out which were all putrefied. The parts of the body were sent for chemical analyses to IGMC Shimla, where forensic expert and doctor conducted postmortem and a part of the body recovered was sent for DNA profiling. On the basis of DNA profiling, the dead body was found to be that of deceased Nisha. Accused Shayam Lal was arrested alongwith his brother Kamal Chand. On the discovery of body, FIR No. 238 of 2007 was registered on 13.09.2007 at Police Station Nalagarh. Investigation revealed that Shayam Lal accused was unmarried and he was h