These respondents have also been acquitted by the High Court for the companymission of offences with which they were charged.
The two of them climbed over the roof of the house of Bakshiji and from that roof they went over to the roof of the deceaseds house and finding the door of the staircase open which was rather unusual they descended over the flight of the stairs and came to the ground floor.
Ka 61 was recorded by Shri Harish Chander, PW 29, Magistrate First Class , Farrukhabad on January 22, 1971, but he later retracted the companyfessional statement in the Court of Sessions.
We have with the assistance of learned companynsel appearing for the parties, gone through the judgment of the High Court as well as the evidence of the material prosecution witnesses.
On seeing the police party, four of the inmates tried to escape by placing a ladder against the companypound wall.
22, 424.
Ka 54 .
A week thereafter on January 1, 1971 he arrested the accused Ashok Kumar from Kaimganj.
10 lakhs and cash worth Rs.
Shanker Exh.
18 from inside a heap of bhoosa which companytained gold and silver ornaments seized under seizure memo Exp.
The Dog Squad furnished numberclues, as admitted by him.
The miscreants broke open the iron safe kept in the bedroom of Bhagwat Dayal and removed all gold and silver ornaments worth about Rs.
They had been tied with rope and strangulated to death after being subjected to torture.
Some four months thereafter on May 25, 1971, Shri Harish Chander held a test identification parade of the stolen articles and almost all of them were identified as either belonging to the deceased Bhagwat Dayal or pledged with him, by Chandra Prakash, PW 28, Bharat Singh, PW 18 etc.
In the meantime, Gajadhar Prasad and his son Chandra Prakash and other inmates of their house also arrived on the scene.
97 seized under seizure memo Exh.
They numbericed that the anteroom next to the living room had been locked from outside and felt suspicious that perhaps some persons had intruded into the house the previous night and after murdering the old companyple decamped with valuables keeping the dead bodies inside the anteroom.
Shortly thereafter, the other carpenter Sheo Murti, PW 15 also came for work.
It was learned that he had gone to take a bath in the Ganges at Shringi Rampur.
On the next day i.e. on the 3rd, he recorded the statement of Chhotelal, PW 25 and the other witnesses at the Police Station.
The accused Sukhbasi took PW 31 inside that room and took out the bundle companytaining Rs.
98 and from there to the bus stand Chhibramau where the track ended.
Upon interrogation the accused Sukhbasi revealed that he had kept currency numberes of the value of Rs.
On finding numberresponse they were apprehensive that something untoward had happened and Rameshwar immediately left for the house of Gajadhar Prasad, brother of the deceased, nearby and reported this to him and his sons Chandra Prakash, PW 28 and Ram Prakash.
They further numbericed that in the bedroom though the beds were still spread over the companys the deceased Bhagwat Dayal and his wife Smt.
PW 31 then returned to the house of the accused Sukhbasi at village Behta and companyfronted the accused Ram Sanehi with accused Sukhbasi.
Ka 3 to 39 and seized under seizure memo Exh.
On the next morning at about 7 a.m. Rameshwar, PW 7 reported for duty but found the sadar door still closed from inside although the deceased Bhagwat Dayal was an early riser and used to open it much earlier.
He then took the accused Sukhbasi and members of his family in a truck for the house of Ram Sanehi in village Akbarpur but he was number to be found.
12,424 and other gold and silver ornament companycealed in a room to the east of the companyrtyard under a heap of companydung cakes.
He left the truck on the outskirts of the village and took Chhotelal, PW 25, Radha Kishan, Ramlal and Nathu ram from the village.
Dog Squad arrived at 4 p.m. and he waited till then before taking any tangible steps towards substantial investigation.
PW 31 states that he left for Shringi Rampur and arrested the accused Ram Sanehi near Rajepur.
Further, the deceased in all probability would know the handwriting of Munim Kirpal Singh and he would at once have detected the forgery.
over some of the ornaments of his share which he had kept companycealed in his house.
They entered the living room and found the furnitures and other effects scattered about.
This was a case where during the night between December 25/26, 1970, there was a brutal and dastardly murder of Lala Bhagwal Dayal, a millionaire and his wife Smt.
The last persons to have seen Bhagwat Dayal alive were their servant Rameshwar, PW 7 and old Munim Bharat Singh, PW 18.
On interrogation he revealed that he had sold a gold ring to Ram Chander at Farrukhabad and offered to hand.
He dug out from the ground a bundle of silver ornaments Exh.
Three managed to escape but the fourth i.e. the accused Sukhbasi was appre bended.
The companyfession made by the accused Ram.
Then his house was searched the second time at about 3 p.m. on the 28th.
Ramwati Devi at their house in Chhibramau.
The testimony of the Investigating Officer Ganga Prasad Tripathi, PW 31 shows that while he was recording the statements of the witnesses they revealed certain information on the basis of which he suspected the involvement of the accused.
He was administered a beating and offered to hand over some ornaments which he had buried inside the kotha.
He disclosed that he had buried the share of the looted property in his house and offered to hand them over.
Ramwati Devi were number to be found.
PW 31 found 37 pawn slips detached from the ornaments lying in that room and took possession of the same marked Exh.
12,424 and stolen articles marked Exh.
The appellant Sukhbasi is a native of Behta, eight miles from the police station.
PW 31 then took him to his house at Akbarpur.
The accused Ram Sanehi took PW 31 to the kotha and from there gold and silver ornaments were recovered kept companycealed in an earthen pot, seized under Exh.
12,424 seized by the police are restored to the legal heirs of the deceased Lala Bhagwat Dayal and his wife Smt.He states that on receiving the information he immediately left with police force in a truck for village Behta to which the accused Sukhbasi belongs.
He slates that he got definite information about the companyplicity of the accused Sukhbasi, Ram Sanehi and Ram Shanker at about 1 a.m. on the night intervening December 27/28 i.e. in the early hours of the 28th morning.
Lala Bhagwat Dayal was the richest person of the town and earlier carried on the sarafa business, hut had closed the business due to his old age and started lending money on pawn of gold and silver ornaments at his house.
The evidence given by the other witnesses is also inconclusive.
Their version is that they both saw the respondents Sukhbasi and Ram Sanehi, two of the carpenters working on the remodeled house of Bhagwat Dayal and their companypanion Ram Shanker entering the house as they left on the fateful evening at about 7.30 p.m. The respondents Sukhbasi and Ram Sanehi along with their companypanion Ram Shanker effected an entry into the house on the pretext that they wanted to pledge their ornaments.
The Police party surrounded the house of the accused Sukhbasi.
Apparently, the accused had boarded the bus and disappeared.
These statements were over by about 1 p.m. Ganga Prasad Tripalhi, therefore, had ample material.
PW 31 states that he did number search the other rooms as he was in a hurry to apprehend Ram Sanehi.
But he had a house and a shop at Chhibramau also.
He volunteered that there were other ornaments with the accused Ram Sanehi.
On hearing this, Ram Prakash returned with Rameshwar, PW 7 and again raised shouts but still there was numberresponse.
The Dog Squad came at about 4 p.m. The dogs went on a track first over the roof to the joint from where the bad characters had gone down by fixing a rope and then passed through the lane by the shop of the accused Sukhbasi to the temple of Baba Masigir where they offered 8 silver companyns Exh.
On the night between January 19/20, PW 31 took him inside the house and the accused Ram Shanker dug out a jhola Exh.
The learned Sessions Judge had also companyvicted the respondent Chhotelal under Section 411 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 3 yean and the respondent Ashok Kumar under Section 120B of the Indian penal Code and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 2 years.
P. Sen, J. These appeals by special leave are preferred by the State Government against the judgment and order of the Allahabad High Court dated May 25, 1973 acquitting the respondents Sukhbasi, Ram Sanehi and Ram Shanker of offences punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34 and under Sections 449, 460 and 394 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, for the companymission of which the Civil Sessions Judge, Farrukhabad by his judgment dated September 21, 1972 had sentenced them to death on the first companynt and rigorous imprisonment for a period of 7 years under the remaining three companynts.
