RATAN SINGH Vs. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS order shall govern the disposal of Criminal Appeal No. 692 of 1976 (Ratansingh v. The State of Madhya Pradesh), also.

(2.) THE facts giving rise to this Miscellaneous Criminal case and the aforesaid criminal appeal are as below:

(3.) ACCUSED Hansram and Raisingh preferred an appeal from jail against the aforesaid judgment of conviction and sentence of life imprisonment. However, the present applicant Ratansingh (appellant in Criminal Appeal No. 692/76) did not do so. The memo of appeal annexed with the prescribed form of preferring the appeal from jail, however, mentioned the names of all the three accused persons as appellants. The same was, however, signed only by two accused persons, namely, Hansram and Raisingh. Criminal Appeal No. 343/70 was registered in this Court on the aforesaid memo of appeal at the instance of two accused persons only. The said appeal was heard by us and we came to the conclusion that the convictions and sentences awarded to the appellants were absolutely illegal and could not be sustained. We also found that there was no evidence to establish the identity of the dead body so as to establish the death of Ramu. The convictions based only on extra judicial confessions without any corroboration from other pieces of evidence and circumstances were set aside and the two appellants (accused persons) were acquitted. At the time of deciding the aforesaid appeal Cr. No. 343/70, it escaped our notice that the third accused Ratansingh had not preferred any appeal.