GIRIRAJ SINGH VAGHELA Vs. STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS Criminal Appeal by the appellants-A1 to A3 is directed against the judgment, dated 17-04-2006, in Sessions Case No. 429 of 2004, on the file of the i Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge, Hyderabad, wherein the appellants-A1 to A3 were sentenced to undergo Life Imprisonment each for causing death of D1 and to pay a fine of Rs. 5,000/- each, in default to suffer Rigorous Imprisonment for two years each for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian penal Code, 1860 (for brevity 'ipc'), further sentenced to undergo Life imprisonment each for causing death of D2 and also to pay a fine of Rs. 5,000/-each, in default to suffer Rigorous Imprisonment for two years each for the offence under Section 302 IPC, further sentenced to undergo Life Imprisonment each and also to pay a fine of Rs. 5,000/- each, in default, to suffer Rigorous imprisonment for two years each for the offence under Section 302 r/w 120-B IPC, further sentenced to undergo Rigorous Imprisonment for seven years each and to pay a fine of Rs. 2,500/- each, in default to suffer Rigorous Imprisonment for one year each for the offence under Section 397 IPC and further directed all the sentences to run concurrently.

(2.) BRIEF facts, that are necessary for disposal of the present Criminal Appeal, may be stated as follows: pw. 27 is the wife, P. Ws. 3 and 24 are the friends of Ravikanth Maheswari (hereinafter referred to as 'deceased No. 1' ). PW. 1, PW. 25, PW. 30, 41 and A1 are all working under him in his Patencheru Steel Limited. The deceased No. 1 was the Managing Director of the said factory and was residing alone in Flat No. 301, mount Nasir Apartments. Flat No. 302 was his office and his family was residing at Delhi. He used to visit Delhi twice in a month. In the first week of december, 2003, he called A. 1 at his residence for the purpose of cooking food. Subsequently, Sampath Rao (hereinafter referred to as 'deceased No. 2') joined in the place of A. 1 and A. 1 was sent back to the factory and was appointed as driver to the General Manager of the factory i. e. PW. 47. About two months prior to the incident, it is alleged that A. 1 informed his friend PW. 5 that there was lot of money in the factory and in the house of deceased No. 1 and sought his help to commit theft. On that PW. 5 admonished him not to indulge in such bad ideas. The guests of factory were accommodated in the hotel of PW. 6 i. e. Grand dish Hotel. A. 1 used to regularly drop the guest in the said hotel and Room no. 206 was allotted to them. On 21. 12. 2003 A. 1 brought A. 2 and A. 3, that they were allotted that room and on 23. 12. 2003 they vacated the room. Deceased No. 1 had a farm house consisting of about 72. 00 acres at Gollur village. He sold the part of the land to PW. 3 through mediation of PW. 4. On 19. 12. 2003 at about 1. 30 PM at the residence of deceased No. 1, PW3 had paid an amount of Rs. 25 lakhs towards sale consideration. At that time PW. 4, PW. 25, deceased No. 2 and A. 1 were present. Then deceased No. 1 handed over Rs. 20 lakhs to PW. 25 with a direction to keep the cash in the chest. Accordingly, PW25 kept it inside and handed over the keys to deceased No. 1. Then at about 3 P. M. they all went to Sub Registrar Office. After completion of Registration and other works deceased No. 1 returned back home at 10 P. M. and PW. 1 parked the car and left home. At about 11 P. M. PW. 30 after meeting deceased No. 1 at his residence, while he was going he saw A. 1 along with his two friends at the main gate of the apartments. Then A. 1 informed him that those two persons were from his native village and were going to meet deceased No. 1 to seek for employment. On 23. 12. 2003 in the morning as usually PW1 went to house of deceased No. 1 to take car keys and notice the door bolted from outside. He then opened and found the dead body of deceased No. 2 lying in the hall and deceased No. 1 lying in the bedroom in a pool of blood. He then immediately called PWs. 24 and 25 and informed the same. He further informed PW. 7-Manager of the apartment and then telephoned to Saifabad Police Station. At about 10. 30 A. M. on receiving telephonic information from PW. 1, PW. 21-Sub Inspector of Police, Saifabad Police station, made a General Diary entry and then he along with P. W. 20-Assistant Sub inspector of police and three other police constables rushed to the scene and disbursed the mob. PW. 21 after noticing the dead bodies preserved the scene and informed his superiors. He then examined PWs. 7 and 24 who came forward from mob, and on his instructions PW. 24 gave a report, which is marked as Ex. P. 51. He then forwarded the said report through PW. 20 for registration. On the basis of Ex. P. 51, PW. 22-Sub Inspector of Police registered the same as case in cr. No. 1176 of 2003 and issued First Information Report, which is marked as ex. P. 52. He then on the instructions of PW. 21 summoned the clues team and fingerprint experts. In the meanwhile, at about 11. 30 A. M. on receiving information, PW. 42- Deputy Commissioner of Police, D. D. 11 C. C. S. , Hyderabad, p. Ws. 40, 41, Inspectors of Police, P. W. 44 Sub Inspector, all rushed to the scene. On requisition, the clue team unit i. e. P. Ws. 14 and 33 finger print experts, P. W. 15-Scientific Associate (Head of unit), P. W. 19- photographer and p. W. 4-Videographer, (Home guard), all reached the scene of offence. On the oral instructions P. W. 42, P. W. 41 took over the investigation from P. Ws. 21. P. Ws. 40 and 44 assisted him. Then on the instructions of P. W. 41, P. W. 40 observed the scene of occurrence and drew the rough sketch, which are marked as Ex. P. 63 and 85 respectively. Then on the instructions of P. W. 41, PW. 16 collected physical evidence that is blood stained carpet (M. O. 19), cushion (M. O. 21) mat (M. O. 20)blood stained swabs in the bath room and he further collected six standards of hair from the right hand palm of deceased No. 1. Thereafter he handed over the same to P. W. 40. Then PW. 14-finger print expert examined all the articles and lifted chance fingerprints available on whisky bottle, (marked A and B)Almaraiah (L1 and L2), Cupboard (D), Bathroom doorframe (Eandf ). He then got them photographed through P. W. 19 and P. W. 34 videographed the scene. He further photographed the dead bodies of deceased Nos. 1 and 2. Thereafter P. Ws. 41 and 44 held inquest over the dead bodies of deceased Nos. 1 and 2 in the presence of p. Ws. 7 and 29. Exs. P. 10 and 11 are the inquest reports and thereafter, the dead bodies were forwarded for postmortem examination. Then at about 7 P. M. P. W. 27 wife of deceased No. 1 arrived at the scene of offence and on instructions, she verified the articles in the flat. During the course of investigation, he further examined and recorded the statements of P. Ws. 1, 24, 25 and other relevant witnesses. On 24. 12. 2003 on requisition P. Ws. 15 and 32 Associate Professor, Forensic medicine Department, Osmania Medical College, held autopsy on deceased Nos. 1 and 2 and opined that their cause of death was due to cut throat injury. Exs. P. 43 and 65 are the postmortem reports respectively. During the course of investigation P. Ws. 41 and 44 made efforts to trace missing skoda Car of deceased No. 1 by contacting Superintendents of Police of neighbouring Districts over telephone sent radio messages. On 24. 12. 2003 he examined and recorded the statements of P. Ws. 3 and 4 and collected Exs. P. 2 and 3 (Sale Deeds) executed by deceased No. 1 from PW. 3. Then collected the ownership particulars of missing car from R. T. A. and that is in the name of Patancheru steels Private Limited. On 23. 12. 2003 on receiving telephonic information about the presence of abandoned car on roadside of Jawra village, P. W. 36- S. I of Nandigam, Khandeswar rushed to the spot and seized the car in the presence of P. W. 31 and seized Mos1, 3 to 5 and 29 under Ex. P. 64. He further seized Rs. 77 loose currency notes of different denominations. He then shifted the car to police station with the help of crane. Basing on Telugu Newspaper, he informed about the seizure of car to Adilabad S. P. Camp Office. Basing on said information P. W. 42 instructed p. W. 44 and another to proceed to Nandigam Khandeshwar P. S. of Amaravathi maharastra State. Accordingly P. W. 44 along with P. W. 19 and P. W. 33 visited the said place and there, PW. 36 handed over the car to them. Then P. W. 33 entered the car and developed the chance prints from car rear view mirror (marked as G), left front door glass (Marked as H) back seat left door glass (marked as J), front right door glass (marked as K ). Thereafter P. W. 19 took the photographs of chance fingerprints on the car. On 17-01-2004 P. W. 45 examined P. W. 5, basing on his statement and on receipt of information through his informant, he deputed S. I. Amjad to make enquiry and produce A1 before him. Accordingly, on 18-01-2004, A1 was produced before him. During the course of interrogation, A1 made a statement that he along with A2 and A3 committed the offence and then he voluntarily produced from his pant pocket cash of Rs. 2,400/- (M. O. 16), gold chain (M. O. 17) and visiting card of Grad Dish Hotel under Ex. P15-panchanama. Thereafter, P. W. 44 obtained the fingerprints of A1 and forwarded the same to P. W. 14 for comparison. On 18-01-2004 on his instructions P. W. 43-A. C. P. Dacoity Team at C. C. S. Hyderabad, visited Deeg village of Ballabgadh Taluk of Faridabad District and with the assistance of local police, he raided the houses of A2 and A3 and arrested them. Later P. Ws. 44 and 45 also proceeded to Ballabgadh P. S. and there a2 and A3 were produced before him. Then during the course of their interrogation, on 19-01-2004, in pursuance of their statement at the instance of a2, a black colour zip bag containing cash of Rs. 13 lakhs and 4 Nokia cell phones were recovered in the presence of P. Ws. 13 and 23. Ex. P61 is the panchanama. Further he made a statement to show the house of A4 to whom he sold gold chain and the same was produced by A4 on 20-01-2004 under Ex. P62 panchanama. Then at the instance of A3 from his house, a polythene carry bag containing cash of Rs. 6,50,000/- under different denominations of Rs. 1,000/-, rs. 500/-, Rs. 100/- and Rs. 50/- were recovered under Ex. P60 panchanama. Then on 20-01-2004 P. W. 45 visited Reliance India Mobile, New Delhi and secured the presence of P. W. 8 and obtained call detains of cell phone no. 33420654 under Ex. P12. Then they along with A2 and A3 returned back to hyderabad and his (P. W. 45) instructions on 23-01-2004, P. W. 44 obtained the fingerprints of A2 and A3 under Exs. P54 and 55. On 23-01-2004 P. W. 5 secured the presence of P. Ws. 6 and 28 i. e. , Grand Dish Hotel Manager and Receptionist and collected the bills (Exs. P4 to P9 ). On 29-01-2004 he obtained the police custody of A1 to A3 for further investigation and on 29-01-2004. A1 to A3 were produced before P. W. 17 for collecting of sample scalp hairs and accordingly, p. W. 17 collected the same. Thereafter, they were produced before FSL authorities. P. W. 39 collected the blood samples of accused. On 30-01-2004 in pursuance of the additional statement made by A2 at his instance on 31-01-2004 in the presence of P,. Ws. 35,37 and 38, two blood stained knives were recovered from Chandra Vaagu Bridge. Ex. P92 is the seizure panchanama. He further lead them to Nandigam Khandeswar main road of Amaravathi and seized number plates by the side of road from bushes. Ex. P93 is the panchanama. On 18-01-2004 and on 23-01-2004 on receiving he fingerprints of A1 to A3, p. W. 14 found H (left front door glass inside car) identical to left index finger of A2 (Ex. P35), J (left back door glass in car) identical with left thumb of A1 (Ex. P36), B (chance print on whisky bottle in the flat) and K (right front door glass in car) identical with right index finger of A3 (Ex. P37), A (whisky bottle) identical with finger print of deceased No. 1. D,e and F not identical with any of fingerprints of three persons. C1 and C2 not clear and were unfit for comparison. On 28-01-2004 P. W. 8-Scientific Assistant, APFSL, Hyderabad, received one sealed cloth parcel containing six strands of hair marked as item No. 7, sealed cover item No. 2. On 29-01-2004, he received a sealed cover (item No. 2) containing sample hairs of A1 to A3 marked as item Nos. 1,3, and 4 respectively. He also received their three blood samples marked as item Nos. 4 to 6 respectively. On 04-02-2004, P. W. 18 conducted D. N. A. finger print examination and opined that as per str analysis item no. 7 matches with the blood sample of A3 (item No. 6 ). Ex. P45 is the report. On 28-02-2004 P. W. 12 Metropolitan Magistrate, Hyderabad, conducted test identification wherein P. Ws. 6 and 2 identified A2 and A3. Ex. P18 is the test identification parade proceedings. During the course of investigation, P. W. 45 collected the bill of mobile no. 949700021 of the month of 2003 from the Manager of Patancheru Steels. Ex. P96 is the bill and Ex. P92 is the bill pertaining to Airtel No. 9810002776. Further seized a sim card 9849700021 from P. W. 26- a lorry driver who picked up the same from the side of road and was using the same. P. W. 45 deposited the seized amount of Rs. 19,50,000/- before XXI Metropolitan magistrate, Hyderabad. P. W. 46 who in turn deposited the same in the form of FDR in SBH Extension Counter, Nampally court's premises. Exs. P101 and 102 are the F. D. Rs. After receiving the relevant documents and on completion of investigation, P. W. 45 filed the charge sheet.

(3.) THE learned Sessions Judge, framed the following charges against the accused: firstly: That A1 to A3 of you on 22-12-2003 at about 11 p. m. at Flat No. 301 of Mount Nasir Apartments, beside Ravindra Bharathi, Hyderabad; committed murder of the deceased No. 1, Ravikanth Maheswari by stabbing and slaughtering with two knives and that you thereby committed an offence punishable Us. 302 IPC. SECONDLY: That A1 to A3 of you on the same day, time and place mentioned above in charge No. 1 supra committed murder of the deceased No. 2, Sampath Rao by stabbing and by cutting his throat by slaughtering with knives and that you thereby committed an offence punishable U/s. 302 IPC thirdly: That A4 of you during the same course of transaction supplied two knives to A1 to A3 with which A1 to A3 committed murder of deceased No. 1 ravikanth Maheswari and deceased No. 2 Sampath Rao and thus you abetted the commission of said offence of abetment and thereby A4 of you committed an offence punishable Us. 109 and 302 IPC. FOURTHLY: That A1 to A3 of you during the same course of transaction, committed robbery of Rs. 20,00,000- from the cash chest kept in the office room in the adjacent Flat No. 3, that A1 of you robbed gold chain, A2 of you robbed another gold chain from the neck of deceased Ravikanth Maheshwari and 3 Nokia cell phones from Flat No. 301, Mount Nasir Apartment, Saifabad, Hyderabad belongs to deceased and at the time you used deadly weapons i. e. , two knives and committed murder of deceased namely Ravikanth Maheshwari and Sampath Rao and that you thereby committed an offence punishable U/s. 397. FIFTHLY: That A1 to A3 of you during the same course of transaction, committed theft of cash of Rs. 20,00,000/-, two gold chains and 3 Nokia Phones from Flat No. 301 and 302, Mount Nasir Apartment, Saifabad, Hyderabad belongs to deceased Ravi Kanth Maheshwari and fled away in Scoda Activia Car bearing No. AP-23f-2520 of deceased No. 1 Ravikanth Maheshwari with the stolen booty and that A1 to A3 of you thereby committed an offence punishable U/s. 380 IPC. SIXTHLY: That A1 of you during the same course of transaction dishonestly misappropriated or converted to your own use certain property i. e. , rs. 20,000,00/- cash, two gold chains and Nokia Cell phones being a car driver knowing that such property was in the possession of Ravikanth Maheswari a deceased person at the time of his death and had not since been in the possession of any person legally entitled to such possession and that you thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 404 IPC. SEVENTHLY: That A1 to A4 of you during the same course of transaction, committed robbery in the house of deceased Ravikanth Maheswari and dishonestly retained the stolen property i. e. , A1 of you retained a gold chain and cash of Rs. 2,400/-, that A2 of you retained Rs. 13,000,00/- and three Nokia cell phones, that A3 of you retained Rs. 6,50,000/- and that A4 of you retained a gold chain belonging to deceased Ravikanth Maheswari knowing or having reason to believe the same to be stolen property and thereby you committed an offence punishable under Section 411 IPC. EIGHTHLY: That A1 to A4 of you on 22-12-2003 at about 11 P. M. in furtherance of common agreement of criminal conspiracy to commit murder of the deceased No. 1, ravikanth Maheswari and rob the cash and valuable like goods etc. , from his possession and also those whoever comes in your way to murder in order to eliminate evidence of offences of murder of Ravikanth Maheswari, A1 to A3 of you effected entrance into Flat No. 301, deceased No. 2 Sampath Rao allowed entry of a1, then A1 of you met the deceased No. 1 and received Rs. 100/- to get chicken curry for the deceased No. 1 then A1 of you handed over Rs. 100/- and requested the deceased No. 2 to bring chicken curry and sent him out and in the absence of deceased No. 2, A2 and A3 of you entered into the said flat and committed murder of deceased No. 1 Ravikanth Maheswari by stabbing and slaughtering with two knives supplied by A4 of you and robbed two gold chains from the neck of ravikanth Maheswari and committed theft of cash of Rs. 20,000,00/- 3 Nokia cell phones and keys of Scoda car, while the deceased No. 2 Sampath Rao entering into the main hall after putting the chicken curry in the kitchen room, A1 to A3 of you pounced upon him and committed his murder by stabbing and by cutting his throat by slaughtering and sped away in Scoda car bearing No. AP 23f 2520 belonging to deceased No1, Ravikanth Maheswari and that you thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 320 r/w 120 (b) IPC. When the above charges were read over and explained to the accused, they pleaded not guilty and claimed to be tried.