Hon’ble Sunita Agarwal, J.—A judgment dated 9.7.2013 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge /Special Judge (D.A.A.) Mainpuri convicting the appellant to death sentence under Section 302 I.P.C. with rigorous imprisonment for life under Section 376 (2) (f) I.P.C. and a fine of Rs. 15,000/- in default of payment of fine he shall further undergo six months additional simple imprisonment and rigorous imprisonment under Section 201 I.P.C. for seven years with a fine of Rs. 5,000/- in default of payment of fine, he shall further undergo additional simple imprisonment for three months, has been challenged by means of this capital appeal, preferred by the appellant. A reference No. 9 of 2013 under Section 366 Cr.P.C. for confirming the death sentence has also been sent by the trial Court. All the sentences were to run concurrently.

2. We have heard Shri Ajay Kumar, learned counsel for the appellant and Shri Akhilesh Singh, learned Government Advocate for the State and have perused the trial Court judgment and the record.

The prosecution case is that a written report was submitted by one Shiv Nath Singh alias Gabbar Singh son of Lala Ram resident of village Bhanau P.S. Bichava district Mainpuri at the police station Bichava. It was mentioned therein that on 11.1.2011 his niece (deceased) aged about 9 years daughter of Amir Singh, Prem Lata daughter of Nand Ram alongwith his father Lala Ram aged about 66 years and niece (Bhanji) Reena daughter of Manohar Singh were watching the grove in the village Lalpur-Sagoni Police station Dannahar, district Mainpuri. On that day at about 4.45 p.m. accused Satish arrived in the grove and asked his niece, the victim, to pluck some guavas for him and paid her money for that. The victim went away with him inside the grove. When he came back to the house from the market at about 5.30 p.m. he did not find the victim upon which he inquired about her from Prem Lata and Reena, who told him that in the evening Satish Dubey came to the grove and took away the victim with him on the pretext of giving him some guavas. When she did not return back, they alongwith their grand father Lala Ram searched for the victim but did not find her. They thought that the deceased would have returned to her house with Satish, who is also the resident of the same village. It was further stated that the informant made search for the victim alongwith his family members and villagers in the grove and nearby fields, but she could not be traced out. He was informed by some villagers that Satish was sitting at the triangle of the road upon which he reached there. As accused Satish saw him alongwith villagers he started running but they had apprehended him. They inquired about the victim, on which Satish had confessed his guilt and told that he tried to commit rape with her, she started shouting and due to fear he committed murder by strangulating her. Thereafter he had thrown her dead body in the Kali river. The informant and other villagers alongwith the accused went to the Kali river, where Satish had thrown the body of the victim, to search but could not trace the dead body. They then took the appellant to the police station.

3. On the basis of written report, a case crime No. 16 of 2011 under Sections 376, 302, 201 I.P.C. was registered against the accused-appellant. Prosecution examined nine witnesses, P.W. 1 Shiv Nath Singh, is the informant and uncle of the deceased, P.W. 2 Lala Ram, P.W. 3 Km. Prem Lata and P.W. 4 Km. Reena are the witnesses of last seen who were in the grove alongwith the deceased before she left with the accused Satish. P.W. 5 C/ 630 Jaiveer Singh is the witness of chik F.I.R.. P.W. 6 Dr. R.D. Yadav is the doctor who conducted postmortem on the body of the deceased. P.W. 7 S.I. Jagdish Prasad Verma is the witness of inquest. P.W. 8 S.I. Jitendra Kumar Singh is the second investigating officer to whom the investigation was handed over after death of the first investigating officer Satya Prakash Gupta