In criminal cases, the prosecution must establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt, especially when relying on circumstantial evidence.

C A V Judgment

Sanjay K. Agrawal, J.

1. Assailing the legality, validity and correctness of the Judgment dated 30.6.2018 passed by learned First Additional Sessions Judge, Ambikapur, District Surguja (Trial Court) in Sessions Case No.240 of 2012, the present batch of four criminal appeals filed under Section 374(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (in short, CrPC) has been filed by A-1 Deepak Kumar who has preferred Cr.A. No.1691/2018, A-2 Dashrath Das who has filed Cr.A. No.1187/2018, A-3 Rajendra Das who has moved Cr.A. No.1560/2018 and A-4 Sanjay Das who has filed Cr.A. No.1506/2018, whereby the aforesaid four accused/appellants have been convicted for offences under Sections 302, 364A, 201 & 120B read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short, IPC) and sentenced thereunder as mentioned at the cart given below:-

Conviction Sentence

1. Under Section 302/34 1. Imprisonment for Life.

of IPC. 2. Fine of Rs.100/-.

3. In default of payment of fine, to undergo additional Rigorous Imprisonment for 01 month.

Factual matrix of the prosecution case, in brief:-

2. On 10.4.2012, all the four appellants herein, in furtherance of their common intention, are said to have abducted the minor victim Sourabh Kerketta for ransom after his school time and took him to the hill side and after making him to consume cold drink with pesticide and sleeping pills and after he became unconscious, crushed his head with stone and cut his throat by blade and thereafter in order to screen themselves from legal punishment threw his dead- body into the deep of Ara Hills to disappear the evidence of his murder, thereby committed the aforesaid offences.

3. PW-1 Lalsai Kerketta, father of deceased Sourabh Kerketta, lodged FIR (Ex.P-1) at Police Station Ambikapur stating inter-alia that his son, Sourabh Kerketta, did not return home after his school time got over at 1:30 p.m. and a ransom call was made on the landline phone no.9301705431 of his house by some unknown person from Mobile SIM No.8516048405 asking his wife, PW-2 Nirmala Kerketta, to collect a letter from the compound of their house and on the information of his wife he reached home and thereafter the report was lodged suspecting the kidnap of his son for ransom on the basis of said letter threatening them of dire consequences and also demanding for Rs.70 Lakh in lieu of releasing his son Sourabh Kerketta. Pursuant to Ex.P-3, the said threatening letter written with red ink along with an envelope was recovered from the possession of PW-1 Lalsai Kerketta. The said threatening letter has been brought on record as Ex.P-4. Six specimen writings of the said ransom letter (Ex.P-4) were got written by A-1 Deepak Kumar at the premises of the Police Station and seized vide Ex.P-17 and the same have been marked as documents S-1 to S-6. The opinion and the report of the Hand Writing Expert, Shri R.K. Alma, Additional State Examiner of Questioned Document, Government of Chhattisgarh, Raipur in respect of the handwriting identification of the documents S-1 to S- 6 and Ex.P-4 has been brought on record, though it has not been exhibited.

4. Memorandum statement of A-1 Deepak Kumar has been recorded vide Ex.P-7, pursuant to which a bottle of thumps up cold drink having smell of pesticide, a small plastic bottle of frooti containing little quantity of liquid and one strip of pesticide inscripted with ‘insecticide lethal’ were recovered vide E