The duty of the Appellate Court to independently assess the evidence and establish the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt based on complete and reliable circumstantial evidence.

JUDGMENT :

Ramesh Chandra Khulbe, J.

This criminal appeal is preferred against the judgment and order dated 03.12.2016 passed by the Court of 2nd Additional Sessions Judge Roorkee, District Haridwar in Sessions Trial No.44 of 2014, “State vs. Hidayat Ali”, whereby the appellant has been convicted by the trial Court for the offence punishable under Section 302 of IPC and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life along with a fine of Rs.5000/- and in default to pay the same, the accused was directed to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for three months.

2. Briefly the facts in brief are that PW-1 Geetika Gupta gave a written report (Ex. Ka. 1) on 28.08.2013 at P.S. Kotwali Roorkee with the averments that his father Arun Kumar Gupta, who was staying in the Campus of I.I.T. Roorkee had been killed by slitting his throat in the night of 27.08.2013. She was informed about the incident through her uncle.

3. On the basis of said report, the case was registered on 28.08.2013 at 16:40 hours at P. S. Kotwali Roorkee against unknown persons. The matter was investigated and on completion of investigation a charge-sheet (Ex. Ka. 12) was submitted on 27.12.2013 against the accused-appellant.

4. After complying with the provisions of Section 207 Cr.P.C, the case was committed to the Court of Sessions.

5. Learned Sessions Judge, Haridwar framed the charge against the accused-appellant u/s 302 IPC on 25.02.2014, to which the accused-appellant pleaded not guilty and claimed to be tried.

6. The prosecution in order to prove its case produced PW-1 Geetika Gupta (informant), PW-2 Altaaf, PW-3 Charu, PW-4Kusha Aggarwal, PW-5 I.O. S. I. Ram Kumar Juyal, PW-6 Kuldeep Singh Negi, PW-7 Dr. S.N. Singh (who conducted autopsy), PW-8 Arvind Kumar Aggarwal, PW-9 Virender Kumar Garg, PW-10 I.O. Inspector Jasveer Singh Pundir, PW-11 S.I. Pradeep Tomar and PW-12 I.O Rajeev Rauthan, who completed the investigation and submitted charge-sheet.

7. Thereafter, the statement of accused-appellant was recorded u/s 313 Cr.P.C. The accused-appellant pleaded false implication and also stated that he is innocent, the deceased committed suicide and the police have falsely implicated him at the instance of some informant. In defence he produced DW-1 Mohd. Aftaaf and DW-2 Suman.

8. After examination of entire evidence on record, the trial Court came to the conclusion that the prosecution has proved its case against the accusedappellant to the hilt and accordingly it proceeded to convict and sentence the accused-appellant as discussed in paragraph no.1 of this judgment.

9. PW-1 Geetika Gupta has supported the averments of the FIR and stated that on 27.08.2013 she got information through her uncle Shri B.K. Gupta that her father had been killed by slitting his neck and an effort to burn him was also made. When she made a phone call to his father’s mobile number, it was found to be switched off. Her uncle further informed her that the phone and wallet of her father were also missing. With these averments she filed the FIR (Ex. Ka. 1).

10. PW-2 Altaaf, who is said to be a witness of recovery, did not support the prosecution story and was declared hostile.

11. PW-3 Charu is another daughter of deceased. She has deposed that her father used to take the appellant along whenever he would go out. She further stated that she used to talk her father on daily basis. On one day her father informed her that he has stopped taking the appellant along with him, since the appellant would always demand money from her father and he had an evil eye on the domestic articles. About the occurrence of 22.08.2013, she was informed by her father that appellant had forcibly entered the house on which her father scolded the appellant as to why he entered the room without ringing the bell. Then, the appellant demanded money from her father to which her father denied. The appellant then threatened her father to see him in future. On receiving the information about the death of her father she came to