The confession of guilt under Section 164 Cr.PC was found to be voluntary and genuine, and could be relied upon for conviction.

1. This order will dispose of Criminal Appeal Nos. 235 DB of 2005, 333 DB of 2003, 505 DB of 2003 and 506 DB of 2003, all filed by Satish accused against his conviction for the offence of murder and attempt to rape of deceased Puja, Jony, Sweta and Kuki alias Karuna respectively. It has been brought to our notice that Criminal Appeal No. 1171 SB of 2003 filed by the said accused for offences under Sections 364/376/511 IPC in respect of Somani has been disposed of on 18.3.2004, the said appellant having completed the substantive sentence of seven years RI.

2. Apart from the above set of four appeals, this order will also cover Cross Appeals of the State in the said four cases, being Criminal Appeal Nos. 22-DB of 2004, 3 DB of 2004, 17 DB of 2004 and 10 DB of 2004, seeking enhancement of sentence.

3. We have also taken on Board Criminal Appeal No. 1239 SB of 2004 filed by the State which was a cross appeal arising out of the same incident out of which the accused had filed Criminal Appeal No. 1171 SB of 2003, which stands disposed of by order of Single Bench of this Court dated 18.3.2004, seeking enhancement of sentence.

4. There is another set of four appeals filed by the State being Criminal Appeal Nos. 14 DB, 16 DB, 70-DB and 83-DB of 2004, all filed by the State seeking enhancement of sentence awarded to the same accused under Sections 364/376/302 IPC, wherein the victims were Arti, Sheetal, Shanti and Jan No. We have been told that in respect of the said offences, there is no appeal by the accused.

5. Before we give the details of the nine incidents which are involved in these sets of cases, we may mention that the common factor in all the cases is the same accused who made confession of guilt under Section 164 Cr.PC, which is the main basis of his conviction. However, apart from confession, there is a polygraph test and substantive evidence of the victim in Criminal Appeal No. 1171 SB of 2003 as Somani (victim) was not killed, while eight other victims are alleged to have been killed by the accused #19; after attempt to rape.

6. The nine incidents are briefly referred to as under:

Criminal Appeal No. 333 DB of 2003 and Criminal Appeal No. 3 DB of 2004 (Victim Jony).

On 14.10.1995 at 2.10 PM, Jony, aged six years, had gone out of her house with her uncle Sudesh. Sudesh came home at 2.30 PM alone. Sheela Devi, wife of Azad Singh, mother of Jony asked Sudesh where Jony was. He said Jony had gone with him but was left outside the house playing. Search was made for Jony in the colony but she was not found. No clue was found. At 9.15 PM, Sheela Devi reported the matter to SHO, PS City Bahadurgarh on which FIR No. 326 dated 14.10.1995 was registered. Dead body of Jony was searched out on 15.10.1995 at 2 PM. It was during investigation of FIR No. 524 dated 19.11.1998 (giving rise to Criminal Appeal No. 1239 SB of 2004) that the accused was arrested. He was also arrested in another identical case being FIR No. 363 dated 7.9.1998 wherein he was produced before Dr. Bibha Rani, Lie Detection expert on 1.12.1998. he disclosed that he had lifted a small girl in Shankar garden and had taken her to a drain across the fields and attempted to commit rape on her and strangulated her to death. The said report was taken on record of the Court as Ex.PR dated 9.12.1998. On 10.12.1998, the accused was produced before a Magistrate in another Criminal Case being FIR No. 232 dated 12.7.1995 for obtaining his personality profile test from the Mental Hospital. He was kept under observation of Dr. Rajiv Gupta at PGIMS Rohtak, who examined him from 10.12.1998 to 23.12.1998 and formed an opinion that he was not suffering from any psychotic disorder but was having a Neurotic type of personality. The report is Ex.PU. On 19.12.1998, application Ex.PJ was made by the accused to Dr. Rajiv Gupta for a confessional statement. The application was forwarded to the Area Magistrate through ASI Rohtas Singh. The accused was produced in Court on 21.12.1998. T