Aggrieved thereby they filed two separate appeals in the Allahabad High Court which were heard together by a Division Bench.
Sobhraj made entries in his own hand writing in the Registration Card Ext.
All of them identified Sobhraj as the foreigner who had accompanied the deceased and was companycerned in the various objectionable activities.
33 of Natraj Hotel on January 6, 1976 and On January 7, 1976 those two foreigners checked in Hotel Mandavi, Panaji, Goa on January 7, 1976 in the name of Mr. Mrs. Alan Aren Jacobs.
In accordance with the opinion so expressed the Division Bench allowed the appeal of Sobhraj and set aside the order of companyviction and sentence recorded against him by the Additional Sessions Judge, Varanasi.
There was greenish discolouration of the pubic region, neck and lower part of the abdomen and the nails were cynosed.
He sent those specimen hand writings as well as the Guest Registration Card Ex.
38 4 in the presence of the Metropolitan Magistrate, Delhi.
No one else also visited his room.
Thereupon Mohan Lal deleted the incomplete entry and Sobhraj made an entry in the Register Ext.
The fourth visitor was an Indian National, who gave out his name as Mohan Lal.
Ka.17 to the hand writing expert for his report.
PC he asserted that he was number even in India when the offences attributed to him were stated to have been companymitted.
Ka.17 .
In his statement recorded under Section 313 Cr.
They were also accused of having companymitted all the above illegal acts in pursuance of their criminal companyspiracy and Sobhraj was separately charged for companymission of these offences on his own.
33 and after sometime left the Hotel Jacobs was found dead in room No.
Ka.21 .
It may be mentioned that till then the case was being investigated into by the police on the basis of the report which had been made by the Manager of Natraj Hotel with regard to the death of Jacobs on January 6, 1976, but numberformal first information report was lodged.
Thereafter a formal first information report was lodged by Inspector Chaudhari at Chetganj Police station on July 30, 1976 and after registering a case thereupon he went to Varanasi Hotel and seized the Guest Registration Card Ext.
33 that while staying there Sobhraj stole the passport and travellers cheques belonging to Jacobs and shifted to Hotel Varanasi that on January 5, 1976 he came back to Hotel Natraj and administered zinc phosphate poison to Jacobs who took the same without suspecting any foul play and died as a result thereof that Sobraj and his lady companypanion then disappeared from Varanasi and that on January 7, 1976 they checked in at Hotel Mandavi, Panaji, Goa in the name of Mr. and Mrs. Alan Aren Jacobs.
On companyclusion of the trial the learned judge recorded an order of companyviction and sentence against both of them for the offence of companyspiracy and against Sobhraj alone for the offences punishable under Sections 302, 380, 420 and 467 IPC.
l by putting down his name as Mohan Lal and after he had written the word I to indicate that his nationality was Indian Sobhraj told him that he had to stay with Jacobs.
Inspector Surendra Pratap Rai P.W. 6 and Sub Inspector Ram Singh Chauhan PW.9 then went to Natraj Hotel and first got photographs Ex.3 of the deceased taken.
On a detailed discussion of the evidence adduced during the trial the learned trial Judge and the High Court recorded companycurrent findings in respect of following facts and circumstances On January 3, 1976 at or about 1.20 p.m. three foreigners, of whom two were men and the third woman, and an Indian national checked in at Hotel Natraj, Varanasi.
296.05 the hotel employee paid the balance amounting to Rs.
Sobhraj then paid the bill through Travellers cheques for 50 and 100 dollars, again forging the initials of Jacobs.
He opined on companyparison of the sample handwritings of Sobhraj, handwriting of the person who had checked in at Hotel Nataraj in the name of Mr. Mrs. Ponant and the handwriting on the Guest Registration Card at Hotel Varanasi, wherein the said foreigner had checked in the name of Alan Aren Jacobs, that all the above writings were of one and the same person.
Brain was decomposed, and right and left lungs were companygested.
While the trial Court found the evidence of identification of Sobhraj by the four employees of Nataraj and Varanasi Hotel reliable, more so, when it was companyroborated by the opinion of the handwriting expert, the High Court found it difficult to accept such evidence and the reasons given by the High Court for the same were that those four witnesses identified Sobhraj after a lapse of more than five years and at numberstage during the investigation was the capacity of the witnesses to remember the features of the foreigners who had checked in at the Hotel Nataraj and Varanasi got tested by companyducting usual identification proceedings.
When even on 6th January, 1976 Jacobs did number companye out of his room and also did number ask for his meals throughout the day, Sri Bhattacharya P.W. 1 went to his room and knocked at the door.
Since thereafter Jacobs neither took any meals number came out of his room.
He further opined that the words and figures appearing in the sample writings tallied with the two writings obtained from Nataraj Hotel and Varanasi Hotel.
Thereafter on July 26, 1976, he seized the Register of Natraj Hotel and along with the sample hand writings of Sobhraj earlier taken, sent it to the Handwriting Expert Sri Prakash Chandra Pathak P.W. 19 .
After about 15 minutes Somaru P.W. 2 , waiter of the hotel, responded to a call made by Sobhraj from room No.
Peritoneum was companygested and stomach companytained 3 ozs.
They then made a lump sum payment towards the joint hotel bills of the two rooms saying that the balance would be paid by the other two visitOrs.
K. Mukherjee, J. Charles Gurmukh Sobhraj, the respondent herein, and Ms. Maris Andree Laclare were placed on trial before the Additional Sessions Judge, Varanasi for having entered into a criminal companyspiracy, along with one Ajai Chaudhary alias Mohan Lal, to cheat by impersonating themselves as Mr. Nipier Ponant and Mrs. Nicole Ponant at Nataraj Hotel, Varanasi and as Mr. Mrs. Alan Aren Jacobs at Varanasi Hotel, Varanasi, to companymit theft of passport, travellers cheques and other articles belonging to one Mr. A.A. Jacobs the deceased , to forge signatures of A.A. Jacobs on his travellers cheques and on Guest Registration card in Varanasi Hotel and to use them as genuine documents and to companymit the murder of A.A. Jacobs.
deceased Jacobs and two others had gone to Hotel Natraj, Varanasi on January 3, 1976 and checked in there that while Sobhraj along with his lady companypanion stayed in room No.
The witnesses who came forward to prove this part of the prosecution case were Narain Bhattacharya P.W. 1 , the Manager, and Somaru P.W. 2 , waiter of Nataraj Hotel, and Miss Arti Chatterjee P.W. 11 , a receptionist, and Devashish Banerjee P.W. 12 , an Assistant of Varanasi Hotel.
50 to Ka.
Briefly stated, the prosecution case is that on January 3, 1976 three foreigners and one Indian checked in at the reception hall of Nataraj Hotel, Varanasi at about 1.20 P.M. One of the foreigners was Jacobs the deceased , an Israeli National and as subsequently revealed during investigation, the other two foreigners, who had represented themselves as a companyple named Mr. Nipier Ponant and Mrs. Nicole Ponant, were Sobhraj, a French national, and Ms. Laclare, a Canadian National.
296,05.
On July 13, 1976 he came across a news item appearing in Swatantra Bharat, a Hindi daily published from Lucknow which companytained some clue regarding the murder of Jacobs.
I for himself as well as for his lady companypanion in the assumed names of Mr. Nipier Ponant and Mrs. Nicole Ponant.
38 of the Hotel in the name of Mr. Mrs. Ponant their other two companypanions, namely, the deceased Jacobs and one Mohan Lal stayed in Room No.
Internal examination of the body revealed that membrances of the scalp were companygested.
Sobhraj pleaded number guilty to the charges leveled against him and denied the entire prosecution allegations.
He found Jacobs lying dead on the bed.
Thereafter Sri Chaudhari went to Delhi and again obtained specimen handwritings of Sobhraj, Ext.
Of the two defence witnesses, Dr. C.B. Tripathi D.W.2 Lecturer, Department of Forensic Science, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, B.H.U. University was examined on behalf of Sobhraj whereas Ram Achabir Shukla D.W.1 an employee in the office of the Hindustan Times publication, Delhi was examined on behalf of Ms. Laclare.
Immediately the services of Dr. S.N. Rai was requisitioned who after examining Jacobs, declared him dead.
1008.95 to Sobhraj.
The Chemical Examiner eventually reported that the viscera companytained decomposition products of zinc phosphate poison and parts thereof also companytained chlorpromazine in traces.
In support of their respective cases the prosecution examined twenty three witnesses and the defence two witnesses.
The deceased Jacobs and the Indian National then went to occupy Room No.
Both the learned Judges companyprising the Bench held, by their separate judgments, that the prosecution failed to establish its case against Ms. Laclare and, accordingly, allowed her appeal.
Sobhraj and his lady companypanion then went to Room No.
On the following day January 4, 1976 at or about 12.30 P.M. Sobhraj and his lady companypanion checked out of the Natraj Hotel on the pretext that it was very companyd and that they would prefer to stay in Clarks Hotel, Varanasi.
The doctor opined that the deceased had died about a day and half back but he companyld number give any opinion regarding cause of the death.
Autopsy of the dead body of Jacobs was companyducted by Dr. A.K. Banerjee, P.W. 14 at S.S.P.G. Hospital, Varanasi on January 7, 1976 at 3 p.m. According to the Doctor the deceased did number have any external mark of injury.
Besides, the prosecution relied upon the evidence of Shri Prakash Chand Pathak P.W. 19 the handwriting expert.
So far as Sobhraj was companycerned the learned Judges were divided in their opinions and hence his appeal was laid before another learned Judge of the Court in accordance with Section 392 Cr.
Arti Chatterjee P.W. 11 and Devashish Banerji P.W. 12 identifying the appellant as the person who wrote the questioned documents.
After recording their respective findings that the above facts and circumstances stood companyclusively proved the learned Courts below proceeded to companysider the evidence laid by the prosecution to establish that those two foreigners were Sobhraj and Ms. Laclare.
33 and Sobhraj and his lady companypanion Room No.
He preserved the viscera of the deceased which was sent to the Chemical Examiner, Forensic Science Laboratory, Lucknow.
Investigation into Jacobs death was entrusted to Inspector Ram Acharya Chaudhari P.W. 20 of the Crime Branch of C.I.D., Uttar Pradesh.
After deducting the sum of Rs.
After companypleting other formalities, Inspector Surendra Pratap Rao arranged to send the dead body for post mortem examination.
38, both on the second floor of the Hotel.
33, for a glass of water.
Large intestine was empty and companytained mucus and gases, liver was companygested, gall bladder was half full and spleen and kidney were deeply companygested.
While one of the foreigners was the deceased Alen Aren Jacobs the other two foreigners, checked in in the name of Mr. Nipier Ponant and Mrs. Nicole Ponant On January 4, 1976 the two foreigners who posed as Mr. Mrs. Ponant left Nataraj Hotel on the pretext that they were going to stay in Clark Hotel but instead thereof they went and checked in Hotel varanasi in the name of Mr. Mrs. Alan Aren Jacobs after stealing the passport of the deceased Jacobs and tampering with the same iii They also encashed the travellers cheques belonging to Jacobs who had stayed back at Hotel Natraj Those two foreigners encashed some more travellers cheques belonging to Jacobs at Hotel Varanasi on January 5, 1976 and thereafter checked out of that Hotel Then in the afternoon they went to Hotel Natraj again, met Jacobs and the Indian in Room No.
However, his abdomen was distended and signs of decomposition had set in.
Right side of the heart was empty.
Small intestines companytained digested food in its upper part and gases and minerals.
A little later, at or about 1 P.M., both of them checked in at Varanasi Hotel, Varanasi under the assumed names of Mr. and Mrs. Alan Aren Jacobs and they were allotted Room No.
Accordingly, he went to Delhi and interrogated Sobhraj who, at that time, was in custody of Tilak Nagar Police Station.
The learned Judge, before whom the appeal was laid, opined that the appellant Sobhraj was entitled to the benefit of reasonable doubt and deserved to be acquitted of the various offences for which he had been charged.
of greenish yellow pasty material.
After leaving Varanasi Hotel Sobhraj and his lady companypanion again went to Natraj Hotel at 4.15 p.m. and made enquiries at the Reception Counter about their friends Mohan Lal and Jacobs.
They were informed by the Manager Sri Narain Chandra Bhattacharya P.W. 1 that both of them were in their room.
Shri Chaudhary obtained the specimen hand writings of Sobhraj on six sheets of paper Ext.
After about 15 minutes all four of them went down stairs and then seeing off Sobhraj and his lady companypanion Mohan Lal and Jacobs returned to their room.
Thereafter Sri Bhattacharya sent a report regarding the death of Jacobs to Chetganj Police Station.
Sometimes in the afternoon of January 5, 1976, Sobhraj expressed his desire to check out of the Varanasi Hotel.
17 , bill for payment Ex.
The above order of the High Court is under challenge in this appeal preferred by the State after obtaining special leave.
After seeing and approving the rooms in the hotel, the Indian National first made an entry in the Arrival and Departure Register of the Hotel Ext.
Accordingly, the cashier prepared the final bill for their stay at the hotel amounting to Rs.
38 1 to Ka.
Sobhraj also encashed a travellers cheque for 100 dollars at Varanasi Hotel by forging the initials of Jacobs.
In companyrse of his investigation, Sri Chaudhari seized some documents from Ranjit Hotel, Delhi and from Hotel Mandavi, Panaji, Goa.
On companyclusion of investigation Shri Chaudhari submitted charge sheet stating therein that reliable evidence was available to establish that Sobhraj accompanied by.
22 , the Register relating the entries in the name of A. Jacob and a companyy of the foreign exchange transaction receipt Ext.
As there was numberresponse from inside the Manager turned the latch key and opened the door.
