The prosecution must establish a complete chain of circumstantial evidence beyond reasonable doubt; gaps or inconsistencies can lead to acquittal.

JUDGMENT :

(Per Hon'ble Arvind Singh Sangwan, J.)

1. Reference No. 14 of 2021 has been made by the Court of Additional Sessions Judge/Special Judge (POCSO Act), Bulandshahr for confirmation of capital punishment awarded to appellant Prem Singh Prajapati in Sessions Case No. 1021 of 2020. The Jail Appeal being Capital Case No.17 of 2021 has been filed by the appellant challenging the judgment of conviction dated 9.11.2021 holding the appellant guilty of offence under Section 302, 201, 363, 376 AB of IPC and Section 5M/6 of POCSO Act and the order of sentence dated 10.11.2021, vide which the appellant was awarded death sentence to be hanged till death.

2. The Reference and Appeal were admitted. The Trial Court’s record is received and paper books are ready.

3. Heard Sri Rajiv Lochan Shukla, learned counsel for the appellant, Sri Bibhuti Narayan Singh, learned counsel for the informant and learned A.G.A. for the State.

4. With the assistance of learned counsel for the parties, the entire evidence is re-scrutinized and re-appreciated.

5. Facts of the case are that informant-Shivam Sharma (PW-1) s/o of Arun Sharma, resident of Village Harnot, Police Station – Shikarpur gave a written complaint to S.H.O. Shikarpur, District – Bulandshahr stating :

“today on 10.4.2020 at about 2.10 p.m. in the afternoon, my niece ‘K’ (name of the victim is not disclosed) daughter of Ankur Sharma aged about 2 years had gone out to play. She was searched outside but she could not be found. Please register a complaint and search my niece.

Description 1- Age 2 years and 1 month, colour fair, face round, wearing yellow coloured T-shirt and green coloured Kachcha/underwear and light blue coloured slippers.

Dated 10.07.2020

Applicant

Mobile No. 6395011916

8859281459

Shivam

S/o Arun sharma

Village Hirnot

Police Station Shikarpur

Bulandshahr ”

6. On the basis of above written report, Constable Sunil Kumar typed the chick F.I.R. under Section 363 of IPC and case was registered on 10.7.2020 at 19:07 hours on receiving information in the Police Station vide G.D. Number 044.

7. The distance from the place of occurrence to the Police Station was reported to be 8 kms. The case was handed over to Sub Inspector Sukhpal Singh for investigation.

8. During the investigation, the police conducted the search operation and dog squad was called at the spot to recover the victim. Posters were also pasted for searching the missing girl and intense search was conducted in the nearby houses. The victim was also searched in the nearby temples and mosques etc. Services of divers were taken to search a pond near the house of the victim. Later on, informant and his father informed the Investigating Officer that the dead body of the victim is found in the pond near the house of the appellant-Prem Singh and one Kailash. The dead body was recovered from pond situated at on back side of the Gher (Cattle House) of the father of the appellant. During investigation, it was found that the appellant kidnapped the minor child and by committing rape on her, had thrown her in the pond and she died due to drowning. The dead body was recovered on 12.7.2020. The Panchayatnama was prepared by Sub Inspector Sukhpal Singh on 12.7.2020 at about 11.50 a.m. and it completed at 14.02 pm. The Punchs were Shivam, Akash, Devendra, Ravindra and Kushal Goswami. It was recorded in the Panchayatnama that when police party reached the pond, the dead body of the minor child was floating and her hands and feet were visible. The dead body was recovered from the water and she was identified as victim ‘K’ by the informant and other family members. On physical appearance of the dead body, her eyes were coming out, there was mark of injury on the right side of the face, the teeth were also coming out and the skin was coming out near the vagina. Therefore, as per the opinion of the Panchs, the postmortem of the dead body was got conducted. After the panel of doctors conducted the Postmortem, the DNA sample was sent to find out, if rape w