Honble S.N.H. Zaidi, J.—Criminal Appeal No. 656/2008 has been preferred under Section 374 (2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure,1973, in short Cr.P.C., by Dhruv Kumar Tiwari @ Pappu against the judgment dated 6.10.2007 and order of sentence dated 10.10.2007 passed by Addl. Sessions Judge, Court No. 4, Kanpur Nagar in S.T. No. 771 of 2001, whereby he has been sentenced to death under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, for short I.P.C. Criminal Appeal No. 7865 of 2007 has been preferred by the Appellant from the Jail. For the confirmation of the sentence of death a Reference under Section 366 (2), Cr.P.C. has been received from the trial Judge.

2. The aforesaid Appeals and Reference have been connected and are being disposed of together by the present judgment.

3. The case of the prosecution, as revealed from the statements of the prosecution witnesses, in brief, is that on 10.2.2001 at about 8 P.M. the complainant P.W.1 Nishit Kumar Sharma had gone to meet his in-laws, who were residing in a nearby house in Mohalla Shutur Khana of Kanpur Nagar, along with his wife P.W. 6 Smt. Manju Sharma and his 7 years old daughter Km. Medha. In his in-laws house there lived his father-in