- (1.)These appeals are directed against the common impugned judgment dated 24th March, 2011 passed by the High Court of Madhya Pradesh, Principal Seat at Jabalpur, by which High Court upheld the judgment of conviction and sentence for the offences u/s 302, 307, 394, 397 and 450 IPC, as follows: JUDGEMENT_518_TLPRE0_2014_1.html
(2.)The learned counsel for the appellant assailed the conviction, inter alia, on the following grounds:
(a) The trial was not fair as the appellant was not given an opportunity to defend by the counsel of his choice.

(b) The Trial Court gravely erred in placing implicit reliance on the statement of Razia Khatoon (PW-4) and Zeenat Parveen (PW- 3) and on the evidence of recovery of the ornaments and other articles from the possession of the appellant.

(c) The death sentence awarded by the Trial Court as confirmed by the High Court is not justified, as no case of rarest of the rare is made out.

(3.)The case of the prosecution is that the accused-Santosh Kumar Singh was known to the family of Gulam Mohd. including his wife, Noorjahan, son Javed Akhtar, and daughters viz. Rozi @ Razia and Zeenat Parveen. On 7th May, 2010, accused came to their house in Sector No.12, Quarter No.B-664, N.C.L. Colony, Singrauli at about 2 p.m. He had a chat with Noorjahan Begum (deceased) for about 30 minutes. In the same room besides her Rozi @ Razia Khatoon(PW-4) and Zeenat Parveen (PW-3) were also present. Javed Akhtar (deceased), son of Noorjahan Begum was sleeping in the bedroom. After accused left, Noorjahan Begum (deceased) started offering Namaz, Rozi @ Razia went to bathroom to take bath and Zeenat Parveen was sitting in the outside room. After sometime, accused came back and knocked the door; Zeenat Parveen opened the door and the accused came inside. At that time Rozi @ Razia came out of the bathroom and saw accused talking to Zeenat in the outside room, at that moment, the accused suddenly pulled out an iron hammer from his T-shirt and hit on the head of Zeenat Parween two-three times with hammer. Zeenat Parveen screamed and became unconscious. The accused, thereafter, with intention to kill Noorjahan Begum and Javed Akhtar also hit them with hammer on their heads, because of which both fell down and became unconscious. After that accused hit Rozi @ Razia by the hammer on her head with an intention to kill her resultantly Razia's head got fractured. Thereafter, the accused opened the almirah, suitcases and boxes and looted two gold chains, one pair of tops, one pair of bali, one pair of jhala, three rings, one nose pin and four pairs of silver anklets, artificial jewellery etc. and Rs. 23,000/- cash of Noorjahan Begum. He also took out four brass bangles from the hands of Noorjahan Begum. As a result of assault Noorjahan Begum died on the spot. On hearing shrieks of Rozi @ Razia, Ramesh Satnami (PW-1), Ramawadh Pal (PW-5) and other people of the colony came. At the time of incident, Gulam Mohd. (PW-2) was on duty and on receiving the news he came to the place of incident and took Rozi @ Razia, Zeenat Parveen and Javed Akhtar to Nehru Hospital.