The main legal point established in the judgment is the requirement for circumstantial evidence to be cogently and firmly established, the need for a complete chain of events, and the exclusion of any reasonable doubt in the mind of the court to support a conviction based on circumstantial evidence.

JUDGMENT :

S.K. Awasthi, J.

1. This appeal takes exception to judgment dated 06.05.2014 passed by Sessions 43. 45. Judge, Indore in Sessions Trial No. 642/2014 by which, appellant came to be convicted for the offence punishable under Section 302 of Indian Penal Code (in short 'IPC') and sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 10,000/- in default to suffer rigorous imprisonment for six months.

2. The prosecution case in short is that on 12.01.2010 at about 13.15 hours Wasim, the Manager of Dilip lodge, 3 Nyasiya Road Indore made a complaint to station house officer Police Station Chhoti gwaltoli, Indore contending that on 08.01.2010 two persons visited the hotel and registered themselves as Ritesh Sharma S/o Ramesh Sharma, aged about 23 years, R/o Station Road, Neemuch and Rohit aged about 23 years. They booked one room of the hotel at a rent of Rs. 100/- per day and gave an advance of Rs. 200/-. They were allotted room No. 13 of the hotel. Next day, on 09.01.2010, room was found locked. Thereafter on 12.01.2010, foul smell emanated from the said room. The door of the room was locked from the outside, therefore he broke the lock and opened the room, where dead body of Ritesh Sharma was found lying in between two coats. One injury was noticed in the neck of Ritesh and a lot of blood was found splattered in the room. Complainant suspected that the other person Rohit could have killed the deceased and escaped. On the basis of the above the Station House Officer Mr. D.K. Jain recorded the Dehati Nalisi (Ex. P/1) and sent the same to the police station Choti gwaltoli Indore for registration of offence under Section 302 of I.P.C., pursuant to which crime No. 14/2010 was registered.

3. In course of investigation, S.H.O. D.K. Jain prepared the inquest report and sent the dead body for postmortem examination. Police recorded the statement of witnesses. Spot Panchnama is drawn, alongwith seizure memo in respect of sample of blood, earth control, one white bed sheet having blood stains, one empty plastic vial of vicks vaporub, three empty plastic bottles of Limca, Sprite and liquor . Police seized visitor register of the lodge on the instance of Mohammad Wasim, Manager of the Hotel. On verification of names and address shown in the register were found to be false. During investigation the deceased was identified as Vijay S/o Bagdi Ram Pawar R/o Nagda Junction. Police recorded the statement of Ajay, the brother of the deceased who disclosed that Vijay was working as Carpenter in Indore and residing with him in Nagin Nagar Indore. He further stated that on 08.01.2010 at about 04:00 pm Vijay left the house informing his wife that he is going to Bhopal alongwith his friend Rakesh (present appellant) for interview and he will come back after three days. But he did not return then he tried to talk to him on his mobile phone bearing No. 8109483430 however his mobile phone was switched off. Then he searched him but he could not be traced. He received some message from the mobile phone of Vijay by which it is informed that he is fine and he asked that he gave Rs. 10,000/- to Rakesh (present appellant) which he borrowed from him. After that he contacted Rakesh and in order to search his brother, he went to various other places, during this appellant Rakesh was also accompanied with him. After drawing a blank he went to police station Nagda and lodged a missing person report of Vijay. Accused Rakesh was interrogated by Nagda police because he was suspected to have something to do with the disappearance of Vijay. On receiving information that a crime has been registered in police station Choti gwaltoli Indore in connection of murdur of Vijay the accused was handed over to the said police Station. Police recorded his disclosure statement under section 27 of Indian evidence act. In pursuance to which he got recovered his mobile phone, blood stains knife, his cloths wearing at the time of incident, mobile phone and variou