The judgment emphasizes the importance of circumstantial evidence and the need for a complete chain of evidence to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Virender Singh, J. - Kashmiri Lal husband of Rekha Rani, the appellant herein is the deceased. Malkiat Singh, the other appellant was a tenant in the house of Kashmiri Lal. Both of them were charged under section 302 read with section 34 Indian Penal Code for allegedly committing the murder of Kashmiri Lal on the night intervening 8/9 September, 1994. They now stand convicted by the learned Sessions Judge, Hoshiarpur vide impugned judgment dated February 5, 1996 and have been sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 1000/- each. In default of payment of fine to further undergo RI for three months each.

2-3. The police swung into action on FIR Ex. PQ lodged by Rekha Rani appellant on 9.9.94. The investigation then took a sharp turn and booked both the appellants in this cases. The FIR in short runs as under :-

Kashmiri Lal was employed as an Octroi Inspector who normally used to return to the house after performing his duties after 8 PM in a drunken state. On 8.9.94, at about 10 PM, she heard the noise of the car being parked outside the house and after hearing the sound of the call-bell she opened the door and found that the car was leaving towards Sale Tax road. Her husband who was in badly drunken state entered the house. After about half an hour when her husband and son Dhiraj were taking meals, some one pressed the call bell again and she opened the door. Two persons enquired from her as to whether her husband was in the house and in the meantime Kashmiri Lal asked her from inside the room to bring them inside. Both of them came inside the house and then her husband asked her to bring meals for them also. After finishing the meals, they started taking liquor. She removed the utensils. When she alongwith her son was going to other room for sleeping, Kashmiri Lal told her that they were to go to Garhshankar and Mahilpur the next day in the morning at 5 AM and that she would prepare the tea at that time. She then went to her room and closed the door from inside. During the night at about 1 AM, she heard her husband and the other two persons abusing one another and thereafter they went up-stairs and after some time, she heard the noise of something falling on the ground and when she checked up, she found that the shelf had fallen and her husband was lying underneath the stair-case. Her husband asked her to save him from those unknown persons. In the meantime, one of the persons lifted a flower pot lying on the roof of the bath-room and hit her husband with that flower pot on the head as a result of which, the flower pot broke into pieces. When she was taking her husband towards the Baithak, one piece of the broken flower pot also hit on her head. She put her husband on the bed. Her husband was in a semi-conscious condition. In the meantime, the assailants came inside the Baithak and pulled her from the side of her husband and gave her fist blows. Her head had also struck against the door and she suffered an injury on her forehead. Then both the unknown persons took Kashmiri Lal into the court-yard saying that they would kill him. She made an attempt to rescue her husband but both the assailants caused injuries to him (Kashmiri Lal) with the broken pieces of the flower pot and he consequently died at the spot. Dhiraj her son who was sleeping also woke up and started crying. She took him to the Chobara and bolted the room from inside. Both the assailants asked her to open the door but when she refused to open the door, they bolted the room from outside and after scaling over the boundary wall, they managed to escape. She raised an alarm but no one came to her rescue and on the next day in the morning at about 8 AM, the brothers of her husband namely Chaman Lal and Subhash Chander came to their house and who after opening the door took them out and thereafter she came to the police station and lodged the report.

4. Inspector Ram Parkash PW16 after the registration of the FIR, took up the investig