S.N.H.Zaidi, J. - (1.) CRIMINAL Appeal No. 656/2008 has been preferred under Section 374 (2) of the Code of CRIMINAL Procedure, 1973, in short Cr. P.C., by Dhruv Kumar Tiwari alias Pappu against the judgment dated 6.10.2007 and order of sentence dated 10.10.2007, passed by Addl. Sessions Judge, Court No. 4, Kanpur Nagar in S.T. No. 771 of 2001, whereby he has been sentenced to death under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, for short I.P.C. CRIMINAL Appeal No. 7865 of 2007 has been preferred by the appellant from the jail. For the confirmation of the sentence of death a reference under Section 366 (2), Cr. P.C., has been received from the trial Judge.
(2.) THE aforesaid appeals and reference have been connected and are being disposed of together by the present judgment. The case of the prosecution, as revealed from the statements of the prosecution witnesses, in brief, is that on 10.2.2001 at about 8 p.m. the complainant P.W. 1 Nishit Kumar Sharma had gone to meet his in-laws, who were residing in a nearby house in Mohalla Shutur Khana of Kanpur Nagar, alongwith his wife P.W. 6 Smt. Manju Sharma and his 7 years old daughter Km. Medha. In his in-laws house there lived his father-in-law Shyam Bihari Awasthi, mother-in-law Smt. Ram Kishori, unmarried brother-in-law Shailendra Kumar Awasthi alias Pintu, and married brother-in-law Narendra Kumar Awasthi alias Guddu with his wife and daughter. The appellant, who happens to be a distant relative of Shyam Bihari Awasthi, was also residing and taking meals in that house and though he was working in a Pan Masala factory yet, he also worked as a domestic helper and was present in the house. On that day, Narendra Kumar Awasthi alias Guddu was not present and had gone for darshan of Vaishno Devi with his family on 6.2.2001 and was to return on 12.2.2001. As Smt. Ram Kishori was not feeling well, therefore, her daughter Smt. Manju Sharma cooked the food and when all the inmates of the house, including the appellant, had taken the dinner, then complainant Nishit Kumar and Smt. Manju Sharma returned to their home at about 11.00 p.m. but their daughter Km. Medha was left with her grandmother (nani) in the night. During the period when the complainant remained in that house, P.W. 2 Dinesh Tiwari and one Awdhesh Bajpai also came there to meet Shyam Bihari Awasthi. On the next date, i.e., on 11.2.2001, at about 8 in the morning when the complainant visited his in-laws' house to bring back his daughter Medha for school, he found the main door of the house locked from outside. He got the lock broken with the help of neighbours and then it was found that Ram Kishori and Medha were lying dead on the floor of the bed room of the second floor and Shailendra Awasthi alias Pintu was also lying dead on the double bed in the same bed room and the blood, broken hairs and pieces of bangles were lying scattered on the floor and on the third floor of the house, the dead body of Shyam Bihari Awasthi was lying on a folding bed. All the deceased persons were badly injured. The golden chain and jhumki of Ram Kishori were missing from her person. On the ground floor blood stained pant, woollen sweater and a vest of the appellant were found hidden behind a box. There were five dogs in that house, of which two dogs were of German Shepherd breed, one of mixed Alsatian breed and the remaining two of Pamerean breed. The dogs were found confined in two rooms whereas one German Shepherd was tied with the railing of the roof.
(3.) THE complainant got the report (Exhibit Ka-1) scribed from Arun Sharma and gave it at Police Station Harbansh Mohal at 9.10 a.m. on the same day. In that report it was also mentioned that Dhruv Kumar Tiwari had absconded after committing the murders with the help of his associates. P.W. 5 H.C.P. Ram Raj Singh wrote down the Chik F.I.R. (Exhibit Ka-6) on the basis of written report and registered the case at G.D. No. 18 (Exhibit Ka-7) under Section 302/404, I.P.C. against Dhruv Kumar Tiwari and his associates. P.W. 10 Inspector Bijendra Singh Tyagi, the then S.H.O. of the Police Station took the investigation of the case in his hands and rushed to the place of occurrence and got the inquest reports (Exhibit Ka12 to Exhibit Ka-15) and other connecting documents (Exhibit Ka-16 to Exhibit Ka-36) of the deceased persons prepared by P.W. 8 Sub-Inspector R. K. Pandey. THE Investigating Officer, for short the Investigating Officer prepared the custody memos (Exhibit Ka-8 to Ka-11) of the blood stained clothes and the articles found at the place of occurrence, including the blood stained clothes of the appellant, in the presence of P.W. 7 Ajay Shukla and also prepared site plan (Exhibit Ka-38) of the place of occurrence and sent the dead bodies for post mortem examination. P.W. 3 Dr. U. K. Srivastava and P.W. 4 Dr. Riyaz Ahmad performed the post mortem examinations of the dead bodies on 12.2.2001 and prepared reports (Exhibit Ka-2 to Ka-5) of deceased Shyam Behari Awasthi, Medha, Shailendra Kumar Awasthi alias Pintu and Ram Kishori respectively. The appellant was arrested on 14.2.2001, at the tip of the informer, from Lucknow and was interrogated by the Investigating Officer. The appellant brought the police to his in-laws' village Kakhua, within P.S. Purwa of District Unnao, on the same day and got recovered currency notes worth Rs. 1,79,900, a pair of broken golden jhumki, a broken golden chain of the neck, another pair of golden jhumki with chain and nine silver coins from a bag, which was buried under a lemon tree, near the tube well boring in his father-in-laws' field, in the presence of P.W. 9 Raghunath Prasad Dixit, who had identified the recovered ornaments, bag etc. as those of his deceased sister Ram Kishori and brother-in-law Shyam Bihari Awasthi. The appellant was then brought to Kanpur where he got recovered a blood stained iron rod (saria) and two long pieces of cable wires from an almirah in a room on second floor of the house of occurrence. This recovery was also made in the presence of P.W. 9 Raghuanth Prasad Dixit. Recovery memos (Exhibits Ka-36 and Ka-37) of the recovered articles and site plans (Exhibits 38 and Ka-39) of the places of recovery were accordingly prepared by the Investigating Officer. He had also collected the samples of hairs and blood of the appellant in jail and prepared the custody memo (Exhibit Ka-42) and sent it with other recovered articles for examination to the Forensic Science Laboratory (F.S.L.) at Lucknow. The report of F.S.L. is Exhibit Ka-43. After the investigation, a charge-sheet (Exhibit Ka-41) was filed under Sections 302, 394, 404 and 411, I.P.C. against the appellant only. The Magistrate took cognizance thereon and committed the case to the Court of Sessions for trial.;