Circumstantial evidence must form a complete chain indicating guilt; absent a direct witness, conviction based on established circumstances is valid.

1. Challenge in this appeal is to the judgment of conviction and order of sentence, dated 7.9.2011 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Bemetara in S.T. No.16/10 convicting the accused / appellant under S.302, S.120 - B and 404 of the Indian Penal Code (for short 'the IPC') and sentencing him to undergo RI for life and fine of Rs.500/-; RI for life and fine of Rs.500/- and RI for 3 years and fine of Rs.200/-, plus default stipulations, respectively.

2. In the present case, name of deceased is Bihari Das, father - in - law of accused / appellant herein.

3. Vide impugned judgment two accused have been convicted and sentenced by the trial Court, however, present accused / appellant has only challenged his conviction and till date no appeal has been filed on behalf of co - accused Pitambar, who is in custody.

4. The prosecution story, in brief, is that about a week prior to the date of incident i.e., 8.9.2009, Bihari Das (since deceased) had gone to village Hirapur to get his pension amount and after getting pension, he went to the house of his son Mohan (Ex.P - 10) where he stayed for about 3-4 days and thereafter gone to the house of his daughter Champabai (PW - 8) situated at village Bahunawagaon. When Bihari Das was staying in the house of Champabai, Jagmohan (PW - 2), son of deceased, made a telephone call and talked to Bihari Das who informed him that he would come back after 1 or 2 days. However, when Bihari Das did not return for about 3 days then said Jagmohan again talked to his sister and brother - in - law on telephone and they informed him that said Bihari Das had already left for his house. Thereafter the deceased was searched but his whereabouts could not be traced and therefore a missing report was lodged by Jagmohan (PW - 2) on 22.9.2009.
In the meanwhile, on 9.9.2009, one unknown body of a male was recovered from near the dam at Bandhakhaar and accordingly a merg intimation (Ex.P - 22) was recorded at the instance of one Hiralal, son of village Kotwar. Inquest on the body was conducted vide Ex.P - 19 on 10.9.2009. Photograph of dead body was taken vide Ex.P - 4. Body was sent for post - mortem examination vide Ex.P - 21 which was conducted by Dr. A.M. Shrivastava (PW - 11) vide Ex.P - 8. In the post - mortem examination cause of death could not be ascertained, hence viscera was preserved for chemical examination. Viscera was chemically examined and the Forensic Science Laboratory, Raipur in its report (Ex.P - 27) reported that aluminium phosphide poison (sulphas) was found in the contents sent for examination.
In the course of investigation of missing report of the deceased lodged by Jagmohan (PW - 2), the accused / appellant was interrogated on the basis of suspicion. The disclosure statement of accused / appellant was recorded on 23.9.2009 vide Ex.P - 2 wherein he disclosed that on 8.9.2009 while he along with co - accused Pitambar was going to drop the deceased at village Badhuli, on the way they purchased sulphas from the medical shop situated near Ballar Hotel, Bemetara and after that they purchased country - made liquor, disposable glasses and snacks at village Birsinghi. They sat near Birsinghi Khaar Dabri to drink liquor where he mixed the pesticide (sulphas) in the liquor of deceased and the deceased died after drinking poison laced liquor. Thereafter, he got removed the golden ornaments of deceased and buried the same in a corner of his house after keeping it in the cash - box. On the same day at 2.00 p.m. memorandum (Ex.P - 14) of co - accused Pitambar was also recorded based on which gold ornaments, packet containing sulphas and cash of Rs.2,500/- were seized vide seizure memo of Ex.P - 15. The police had shown Jagmohan (PW - 2) photograph of the dead body recovere