Circumstantial evidence, when linked cohesively, suffices for conviction if it eliminates reasonable doubt, as seen in the confirmed guilt of the appellant for the rape and murder of a minor.

JUDGMENT :

Anoop Chitkara, J.

Sentence imposed

1. Challenging the conviction and the consequent sentence as captioned above, the convict came up before this Court by filing the present criminal appeal in the year 2012.

2. The facts of the case are that on 16th May 2010, the above captioned FIR was registered based on the information given by the father of the deceased (PW-1), in which he named the convict Jarnail Singh as the suspect.

3. Victim's father (PW-1) informed the police that he worked as a laborer. On 15th May 2010, he along with his wife (Victim's mother), his brother (PW-2, Victim's Chacha), and his sister-in-law (Victim's Chachi), his two daughters, namely victim 'A' aged 9 years, younger daughter aged 5-6 years and son aged 3 years, were sleeping in the courtyard of his house. The daughters were sleeping on one cot, and the courtyard light was on. At around 12:30 midnight, he heard a noise of opening of the door and noticed that Jarnail Singh (appellant herein) son of Chhota Singh, resident of village Jhalbuti, Police Station Boha, who was also PW-1's relative and working as a chowkidar in Gaushala at Boha, picked up his daughter, 'A', from the cot, and ran away. In the meantime, his wife, brother (PW-2), and sister-in-law woke up. They called out for Jarnail Singh, but taking advantage of the darkness, he was able to flee, taking away his elder daughter 'A'.

4. Consequently, they kept on searching for their daughter 'A'. Later in the morning, around 7:15/7:30 AM, when they reached Gaushala at a place known as Boha, they noticed Jarnail Singh laying bricks on the cremation ground. On this, they inquired from him about their daughter, but upon noticing them, the appellant, Jarnail Singh, fled from the scene of the occurrence. At the spot, they found blood on the earth, which led to the suspicion that Jarnail Singh had buried their daughter after murdering her. Leaving his sister-in-law at the spot, the victim's parents went to the police station to file a report; however, on the way, they met the SHO, who recorded the father's statement.

5. As per the statement of PW-15 Investigator Sub Inspector Harwinder Singh, he, along with the victim's father, PW-1, and mother, reached the cremation ground at Boha. In between, the Police had also called the Naib Tehsildar [Executive Magistrate] (PW-4, Subhash Singh Mittal), the SMO (PW-6, Dr. Kulwaran Singh), and a photographer (PW-5, Jagtar Singh). In the presence of the Executive Magistrate, the bricks were removed, and underneath, they noticed the body of victim 'A'. The entire proceedings were photographed. After exhuming the dead body, it was sent for postmortem examination.

6. On 16th May 2010 at 5:10 PM, the postmortem examination of the body was conducted by a team of doctors, comprising PW-3 Dr. Asha Kiran, Dr. Bharti Tanwar, and PW-7 Dr. Karamjit Singh. As per the postmortem report [Ex.PW3/D], the length of the body was 3 feet 6 inches. There were impressions of fingernails on the top of the nose, and there were also ligature marks of all five fingers on her neck. The examination pointed towards abrasions on the backside of the spinal cord, a tear of the anal sphincter extending up to the rectum, and an extensive vaginal tear going up to the broad ligament of the uterus. The doctors preserved vaginal and anal swabs.

7. The va