The court ruled that extrajudicial confessions must be voluntary and corroborated; mere last seen and insufficient evidence cannot sustain a murder conviction.

1. This criminal appeal filed by the appellant under S.374(2) of Cr.P.C. is directed against the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 25.09.2012, passed by the Court of learned Sessions Judge, District Mahasamund (C.G.) whereby the appellant / accused has been convicted under S.302 of IPC and sentenced to undergo life imprisonment with fine amount of Rs.1,000/- and, in default of fine, additional simple imprisonment of six months.

2. The case of the prosecution, in brief, is that on 25.07.2011 at about 06:00 PM in the evening at Dumarnala, Village Tamora the appellant - accused has committed murder of is younger brother, namely, Nutan Nishad, S/o Ude Ram Nishad, aged about 13 years (now deceased) by strangulation and, thereby, committed the offence.

3. The further case of the prosecution, in brief, is that on 29.07.2011 at about 09:20 Jagdev Singh Dhruv (PW - 2), being the Sarpanch of Village Tamora, along with Uttam Singh (PW - 8) and one Bugharu Nishad lodged report that: Sonwati Bai, who is mother of Nutan Nishad (deceased) had given an application in the Gram Panchayat stating that his son - Nutan had gone somewhere without informing her and is missing, pursuant to which a meeting of villagers and panchayat members was convened in the night of 28.07.20211, whereby Santram Patel (PW - 1) and other dignitaries of Village Tamora had inquired about Nutan from his brother - Santosh (appellant herein), his mother Sonwati Bai (PW - 5) and other family members, on which Santosh (appellant / accused) disclosed that on 25.07.2011 he has gone for fishing alongwith Nutan at Dumarnala where he caused his death by strangulation, thereafter, on 29.07.2011 in the morning all the said persons visited Dumarnala Chuikhadan where they found the dead body of Nutan (deceased) in a decomposed condition.

4. It is also the case of the prosecution that appellant / accused - Santosh on 28.07.2011 at about 07:00 PM has made extrajudicial confession before Santram Patel (PW - 1), Jagdev Singh Dhruv (PW - 2) and Uttam Singh (PW - 8) that he has caused murder of his younger brother - Nutan and threw his dead body in Dumarnala. On the basis of the report so lodged by Jagdev Singh Dhruv (PW - 2), Marg. No.104 of 2011 (Ex.P - 13) was recorded under S.174 of Cr.P.C., FIR (Ex.P - 03) was also registered, inquest proceedings (Ex.P - 04) were held, spot map (Ex.P - 05) was prepared, seizure memo was affected vide Ex.P - 02, identification of dead body of deceased - Nutan was done vide Ex.P - 01 and, thereafter, the dead body of the deceased was sent for postmortem examination to the District Hospital, Mahasamund. In the post - mortem examination report (Ex.P - 06) it was opined that: the cause of death remains open and the dead body is of human male sex with advanced stage of decomposition, hence viscera preserved for chemical analysis. Thereafter, the dead body was sent to FSL, Raipur by the Superintendent of Police, Mahasamund vide Ex.P - 09, but no such report from FSL, Raipur has been brought on record. Thereafter, statement of witnesses were recorded and after completion of the investigation, the police filed charge sheet in the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Mahasamund and, thereafter, the case was committed to the Court of Sessions for hearing and disposal in accordance with law. The learned trial Court framed charges under S.302 of IPC against the appellant herein, in which he abjured his guilt and entered into defence.

5. The prosecution in order to prove its case examined as many as 12 witnesses and