MOHAN M.SHANTANAGOUDAR,J. - (1.) The instant appeals arise from the judgments of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh, Jabalpur, Gwalior Bench, passed in Death Reference No. 01 of 2004 and Criminal Appeal No. 312 of 2004. Vide the impugned judgments, the High Court acquitted the accused respondents Makrand Singh, Raj Bahadur Singh and Shyam Sunder for the offences punishable under Sections 302 read with 34, 394 read with 34 and 449 of the Indian Penal Code (in short "the IPC "), and Sections 11 read with 13 of the Madhya Pradesh Dakaiti and Vyapharan Prabhavit Kshetra Adhiniyam (in short "the MPDVPKA") and additionally respondent Makrand Singh for offences under Section 25(1)(b)(a) read with Section 27 of the Arms Act and Sections 11 and 13 of the MPDVPKA for causing the death of three people, viz. Premchand Jain, his wife Anandi Devi and unmarried daughter Preeti, and for committing robbery of Rs. 30,000/­ in cash and about Rs. 8,00,000/­ worth of gold and silver.
(2.) The case of the prosecution is reiterated below in brief: Deceased Premchand Jain was in the occupation of money lending, and pawning gold and silver ornaments. The incident took place on the intervening night of 4 th ­ 5th January 2003, where the aforementioned accused persons, on the pretext of doing electrical repairs in the house of the deceased, entered the house and committed the said murder and robbery. After committing the offence, they locked the house from outside and fled.
(3.) The appellant in Criminal Appeal No. 1980 of 2008 is the complainant Ashish Jain (PW26), who is the nephew of the deceased Premchand. The appellant upon growing suspicious about finding the house locked from outside on 5.1.2003, asked some relatives about the whereabouts of the family, but to no avail. Therefore, towards the end of the day at around 09:45pm, he informed the Police Station about the house being suspiciously locked from outside. The police reached the house, broke open the lock, and found all three residents lying dead on the third floor of the house. Multiple injuries were also noticed on the bodies of the deceased, and some electrical equipment (such as wires and a screwdriver) was found inside the house. The chest in which the deceased Premchand used to keep the pawned gold and silver ornaments and cash was found broken open with its contents missing. Thus, an inference was drawn that the accused persons, who are electricians, and who did regular repair works at the house of the deceased, had committed the said offence. The first information (Dehati Nalishi) Ex. P5 was lodged by Ashish Jain, who deposed as PW26. This first information was registered as the FIR Ex. P6 soon after. After completing due procedure and upon investigation, the accused persons were arrested the next morning. The robbed gold and silver ornaments, cash, blood­stained clothes, and certain electrical tools, i.e. a suja and a chisel, which were said to be the weapons of offence, were recovered from the possession of the three accused persons at their instance. The key used to lock the house from outside after the commission of the crime was also recovered from a field at the instance of Accused No.1, Makrand Singh. The robbed ornaments were said to be the ornaments which were pledged by different people as a part of the business run by the deceased. The Naib Tehsildar, the Executive Magistrate, conducted the identification of the robbed ornaments by the pledgors, who identified the ornaments which belong to them.;