Circumstantial evidence alone suffices for conviction if it forms an unbroken chain that excludes every possibility of innocence, alongside corroborative extra-judicial confessions.

JUDGMENT :

Abdhesh Kumar Chaudhary, J.

1. The present Criminal Appeal under Section 374 (2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter referred as to “Cr.P.C.”) has been filed by the appellant/ accused-Yasin against the judgment and order dated 22.09.2011 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Court No. 11, Gonda, in Sessions Trial No. 371 of 2009 (State Vs. Yasin and others) arising out of Crime Case No. 154 of 2009, wherein he has been convicted for commission of the offence under Section 302 I.P.C. and sentenced to undergo life imprisonment along with a fine of Rs.10,000/-. In case of default of payment of fine, the appellant has been directed to further undergo one-year simple imprisonment.

CASE OF THE PROSECUTION

2. The case of the prosecution in nutshell is that Appellant’s wife Haseena Bano died in suspicious circumstances in the intervening night of 29^th/30^th April, 2009. The Village Chowkidar -Ramzan (P.W.-3), on receiving such information reached the house of the Appellant/his Wife, wherein he noticed certain injury marks on the body of the deceased-wife, suggesting that the death was unnatural. Hence, the said Village Chowkidar gave a written report of the in- cident to Station House Officer, Police Station- Katra Bazar, District- Gonda. The Police recorded the said information in the General Diary as G.D. No.14, dated 30.04.2009 at 10:30 AM and thereafter, proceeded to the place of incident.

3. Upon arriving, Police took possession of the body of deceased and conducted a ‘Panchayatnama’ wherein all the members (Panchs) unanimously said that the death of deceased appeared to be unnat- ural and therefore, opined for ascertaining the real cause of death. Accordingly, the dead body of the deceased was sent to District Hospital, Gonda for post-mortem. Dr. R.C. Verma (P.W.-9) conducted post-mortem of deceased on 30.04.2009 and submitted a post-mortem report, which revealed the cause of death as “Shock and Hemorrhage as a result of Ante-Mortem fire arm injuries”. The said post-mortem report also revealed various internal and external Anti-Mortem Injuries on the body of deceased.

4. Following the post-mortem report (Exhibit- Ka-4), police registered Case Crime No.154/2009 under Section 302 I.P.C. on 01.05.2009 and started investigation of the case. During the course of investigation, Investigating Officer collected the blood-stained soil and normal soil from the place of occurrence and seized the clothes worn by deceased at the time of incident and then sent the same to Forensic Science Laboratory, Lucknow for analysis. Furthermore, Investigating Officer recorded the statements of witnesses, namely Nanka @ Heena (P.W.-1), Smt. Ahmada (P.W.-2), Ramjan -Village Chowkidar (P.W.-3) and Munawar under Section 161 Cr.P.C. on 02.05.2009.

5. The statement of the Appellant was recorded under Section 161 Cr.P.C. on 03.05.2009 and statement of Shyam Dhar Pandey (P.W.-6), Krishna Dev Shukla (P.W.-4) on 01.06.2009.

6. Subsequently, on 07.06.2009 i.e. after more than a month, the Appellant was arrested and, on his disclosure, the police recovered a country made 12 Bore Katta, used by him for committing offence of mur