iminal Appeal No 80 of 1970
Appeal by Special Leave from the Judgment and Order dated the 23rd October 1969 of the Delhi High Court in Criminal Appeal No 61 of 1069 Murder Reference No 3 of 1969 Harjinder Singh and section Sodhi for the appellant G Das and R N Sachthey for the respondent 695 The Judgment of the Court was delivered by CHANDRACHUD J
This appeal by special leave is directed against a judgment of the High Court of Delhi confirming the conviction of the appellant under section 302 of the Penal Code but reducing the sentence of death imposed on him by the learned Additional Sessions Judge Delhi to life imprisonment
The charge against the appellant is that on the night between the 17th and 18 August 1968 lie committed the murder of one Ram Kumar
On April 11 1968 Ram Kumar his brother Shiv Kumar their mother and the appellant left Kanpur for Moradnagar
OnApril 15 Ram Kumar Shiv Kumar and the appellant left Moradnagar for Delhi for purchasing a secondhand motor cycle
Shiv Kumar went back to Moradnagar for catching a bus to Kanpur
At about 7 15 pm on April 15 1968 Ram Kumar and the appellant booked a room at Hindustan Hotel Ballimaran Delhi
They signed their names in the hotel register and entered therein their Kanpur address
On the 16th they were admittedly together and while in search of a motor cycle they met Abdul Hafeez Babu Khan and Om Prakash
On the 17th morning Ram Kumar and the appellant struck a deal with Babu Khan and Om Prakash agreeing to purchase from them a motor cycle for Rs 1000 
Ram Kumar paid a sum of Rs 251 by way of advance and the sellers agreed to deliver the motor cycle in the evening
At about 6 pm on the 17th evening Babu Khan and Om Prakash went to Hindustan Hotel with the motor cycle and met Ram Kumar who told them that he was short of money by three or four hundred rupees and that he had sent the appellant to get the amount from his the appellant s Ustad
Babu Khan and Om Prakash waited till about 9 30 pm but the appellant did not turn up and so they went away with the motor cycle
The case of the prosecution is that at about 12 30 am on the night between the 17th and 18th the deceased Ram Kumar and the appellant were seen going to their hotel room by Lal Chand a partner of the hotel
It is further alleged that at about 10 am on the 8th morning Lal Chand and his brother Tek Chand saw the appellant locking the room and leaving the hotel
On April 20th the hotel premises were full of a foul smell and thereupon the lock of the room which was occupied by Ram Kumar and the appellant was broken open
Inside the room was found the dead body of Ram Kumar with two stab injuries one near the right eye brow and the other near the right ear and nine contused lacerated wounds on the scalp each injury being brain deep
According to medical evidence the stab injuries were caused with a pointed sharp edged weapon while the other injuries were caused by a hard blunt substance
Soon after the discovery of Ram Kumar s dead body Lal Chand lodged the First Information Report at the Lahori Gate police station stating that two persons who had entered their names as Nasim Mahazroo and Ram Kumar occupied a room in his hotel on April 15 696 that he had seen them entering the room at about 10 30 pm of the night between 17th and 18th April and that the younger of the two namely Nasim the appellant had locked the room at about 10 am on the 18th and had not returned since then
The First Information Report then refers to the circumstances in which the dead body of Ram Kumar was found in the room
The appellant could not be found at Kanpur where he normally resides and it was on May 4 1968 that he was arrested at Gaya Bihar in the house of his sister
On a search of that house an attache case containing clothes a spanner set an allenkey set and a connecting rod are said to have been recovered
According to the prosecution
 the appellant committed the murder of Ram Kumar with the motive of committing theft of about six or seven hundred rupees which he had kept with him for purchasing the motorcycle
The appellant admitted that he was on friendly terms with Ram Kumar and that they had gone to Delhi for purchasing a motor cycle
He also admitted that Ram Kumar agreed to purchase the motor cycle from Babu Khan and Om Prakash that a sum of Rs 25 was given to Om Prakash by way of advance that he the appellant was asked by Ram Kumar to raise some money from his Ustad to make up the price of the motor cycle and that during his absence Om Prakash and Babu khan had come to the hotel but had left before he reached the hotel
The version of the appellant is that he was unable to get the required amount from his Ustad and therefore on reaching the hotel at about 9 pm on the 17th he told Ram Kumar that be would go to Kanpur and bring the amount
He claims to have left for Kanpur by the 9 45 pm train reaching there at 6 am on the 18th
He obtained a sum of Rs 450 on April 19 from one Rafi and arrived in Delhi on the evening of April 20
He says that be went to Ballimaran where the Hindustan Hotel is situated and on hearing rumors that a person was murdered in the hotel and that his name was involved in it he Bed to Gaya out of fear
He denied that any of the incriminating articles were recovered from his sister s house
This is a case of circumstantial evidence and it is therefore necessary to find whether the circumstances on which the prosecution relies are capable of supporting the sole inference that the appellant is guilty of the crime of which he is charged
The circumstances in the first place have to be established by the prosecution by clear and cogent evidence and those circumstances must not be consistent with the innocence of the accused
For determining whether the circumstances established on the evidence raise but one inference consistent with the guilt of the accused regard must be had to the totality of the circumstances
Individual circumstances considered in isolation and divorced from the context of the overall picture emerging from a consideration of the diverse circumstances and their conjoint effect may by themselves appear innocuous
It is only when the various circums tances are considered conjointly that it becomes possible to understand and appreciate their true effect
If a person is seen running 697 away on the heels of a murder the explanation that he was fleeing in panic is apparently not irrational
Blood stains on the clothes can be attributed plausibly to a bleeding nose
Even the possession of a weapon like a knife can be explained by citing a variety of acceptable answers  But such circumstances cannot be considered in watertight compartments
If a person is found running away from the scene of murder with blood stained clothes and a knife in his hand it would in a proper context be consistent with the rule of circumstantial evidence to hold that he had committed the murder
The circumstances on which the High Court relies are these 1 that on April 15 1968 the appellant and the deceased Ram Kumar arrived at Delhi for purchasing a motorcycle 2 that on the evening of the 15th they occupied Room No 2 in the Hindustan Hotel Delhi 3 that on the 16th the two were together and were looking out for a secondhand motor cycle 4 that on the 17th the deceased agreed to purchase a motor cycle from Babu Khan and Om Prakash and paid a sum of Rs 25 to Om Prakash by way of advance
The motor cycle needed repairs and the sellers agreed to deliver it in
the evening 5 that the price of the motor cycle was fixed at Rs 1000but the deceased was short of money by about Rs 400  6 that on the evening of the 17th Babu Khan and Om Prakash went to the hotel to deliver the motor_cycle when the deceased told them that the appellant had gone to bring the money from his Ustad
Babu Khan and Om Prakash waited till about 9 pm and since the appellant had hot returned till then they left with the motor cycle 7 that Lal Chand PW 1 a partner of the hotel saw the appellant and the deceased coming to the hotel at about 12 30 am 8 that at about 10 am on the 18th Lal Chand and his brother Tek Chand PW 2 who run the hotel in partnership saw the appellant locking Room No 2 and leaving the hotel 9 that the appellant went to Kanpur on the 18th and got new clothes stitched for himself from a tailor there on payment of Rs 60 as tailoring charges
Appellant was generally in poor financial circumstances 10 that during his stay at Kanpur the appellant stayed at Himachal Hotel  in an assumed name section N Gander
He booked a room in the hotel at 5 30 pm on the 18th and left the hotel at 4 pm on the 19th 698 11 that the appellant was traced at Gaya Bihar on May 41968 in the house of his sister
On a search of that house a connecting rod  having stains of human blood was recovered along with other articles
There is clear and un controverted evidence to show that the deceased bad a sum at least of about Rs 700 with him that he wanted to purchase a motorcycle that he and the appellant were occupying Room No 2 in the Hindustan Hotel that it was agreed to purchase a motor cycle for Rs 1000 from Babu Khan and Om Prakash and that the deceased had deputed the appellant on the 17th evening to get the deficit amount of about Rs 300 from the latter s Ustad
These facts were never disputed and are not in dispute before us eithe r
The crucial point of time at which the prosecution and the defence part company is the mid night between the 17th and the 18th
Lal Chand has stated in his evidence that at about 12 30 am he saw the deceased and the appellant entering Room No 2
It was urged by the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the appellant that Lal Chand may have made a mistake in identifying the companion of the deceased but we see no foundation for this submission
Lal Chand is a proprietor of the Hindustan Hotel and he was neither interested in the deceased nor did he have any grudge against a customer like the appellant
It is significant that in the First Information Report which Lal Chand lodged at the Lahori Gate police station on the evening of the 20th he has specifically mentioned that he saw the deceased and the appellant entering the room at about 12 30 am on the night between the 17th and the 18th
At the time when that Report was lodged no one had any clue to the murder and Lal Chand could not have started building up a theory of his own so as to implicate the appellant falsely
The evidence of Lal Chand shows that the appellant and the deceased spent the night in Room No 2
Counsel for the appellant also challenged the evidence of Lal Chand and Tek Chand that they saw the appellant locking the room at about 10 am on the 18th and leaving the hotel
This fact is also specifically mentioned in the First Information Report which in our opinion
is a highly significant circumstance
The case of the appellant is that he left Delhi at about 945 pm on the 17th and therefore be could not have been seen locking the room at 10 am on the 18th
The evidence of Chhedi Lal the Manager of Yasin Tailors Kanpur is relied upon as showing that the appellant was in Kanpur at least at about 2 pm
on the 18th and therefore he could not have left Delhi as late as at 10 am
The train takes more than 8 hours to cover the distance between Delhi and Kanpur
Chhedi Lal was obviously trying to offer a helping hand to the appellant but even then his evidence does not show that the appellant had delivered the cloth to him at 2 pm on the 18th
In answer to a question put by the learned Sessions Judge Chhedi Lal stated that he did not remember the exact time when the cloth was delivered to him by the appellant and that the Cloth may have been delivered at any time between 12 noon and 8 pm 699 on the 18th
The Sessions Court and the High Court were therefore
 right in accepting the evidence of Lal Chand and Tek Chand that the appellant locked the room at about 10 am and left the hotel
These two circumstances are by themselves sufficient to determine the guilt of the appellant
The appellant and the deceased occupied a room in the Hindustan Hotel they were seen entering the room together at mid night between the 17th and 18th and the appellant locked the room on the 18th morning and left the hotel
From that room was discovered the dead body of
Ram Kumar on the 20th
The sum of Rs 700 which the deceased had on him was found missing and at the Kanpur end the appellant was indulging in what for a man of his means was a spree of extravagance
He obtained terylene cloth and paid a bill of Rs 60 to the tailor while his friend was lying dead at Delhi
The appellant is supposed to have gone to
Kanpur to obtain the deficit sum of Rs 300 and if he was truly on such a bona fide mission it passes comprehension that he should have stayed in the Himachal Hotel Kanpur in the false name of section N Gander
The conduct of the appellant after his arrival at Kanpur on the 18th is a valuable link in the chain of causation
He knew that theamount was required by his friend urgently and that his friend was waiting for him in Delhi
On his own showing he had a merry timein Kanpur and according to him it was on the 20th that he went back to Delhi
And what should he have done 
He says that he went to Ballimaran locality where the Hindustan Hotel is situated and then to the hotel itself
Having come to know there that he was being involved in a murder which had taken place in the hotel he claims to have fled to Gaya out of sheer fear
This explanation is wholly irrational and is false
He and the deceased were on intimate terms and there is evidence showing that the deceased and his family used to treat him as of their own kin
If he were innocent he would have in quired about his benefactor in a moment of sorrow and would not haverun away under the magic spell of a strange sense of fear
Added to the weight of these circumstances is the discovery of the blood stained connecting rod from the house of the appellant s sister
That discovery was challenged before us because the two witnesses who acted as Panchas to the seizure memo turned hostile and the prosecution was left to depend on the testimony of two police officers to prove the discovery
That the two witnesses turned hostile was not surprising because both of them are closely related to the appellant
It would have been better if the prosecution had examined the other Panch Sayyed Habib ul Rab who is described as a retired Judge in the Memo of Seizure
The Investigating Officer however was not asked as to why he was not examined and we see no warrant for assuming that the witness though available was
deliberately kept back
The postmortem report shows that on the person of the deceased were found two stab injuries and nine contused lacerated wounds
700 The nature of the injuries shows that two different weapons were used in the commission of Ram Kumar s murder
But in the light of the various circumstances discussed above it is impossible to accept the inference pressed upon us on behalf of the appellant that not only were two different weapons used but at least two persons had participated in the commission of the murder
Even granting that there was more than
one person there is no doubt that the appellant had participated and was a key figure in the commission of the crime
We therefore dismiss the appeal and confirm the order of conviction and sentence
PBR Appeal dismissed


Summary:
The appellant and the deceased who were friends came to Delhi to purchase a motor cycle and stayed in a hotel
The deceased fell short of money and the appellant promised to get it from someone known to him
Two prosecution witnesses saw the deceased and the appellant entering the room of the hotel on the night of the occurrence and the appellant leaving the hotel room in the morning on the following day
Two days later the room was broken open and the dead body of the deceased was recovered
The appellant was arrested at Gaya in his sister s house and an attache case containing clothes a spanner set an allenkey set and a connecting rod were recovered from him
The appellant was convicted under section 302 Penal Code
by the Sessions Judge
In appeal the High Court reduced the sentence to life imprisonment
Dismissing the appeal to this Court HELD  In a case of circumstantial evidence it is necessary to find whether the circumstances on which the prosecution relies are capable of supporting the sole inference that the appellant is guilty of the crime of which he is charged
The circumstances have to be established by the prosecution by clear and cogent evidence and those circumstances must not be consistent with the innocence of the accused
For determining whether the
circumstances established on evidence raise but one inference consistent with the guilt of the accused regard must be had to the totality of the circumstances
Individual circumstances considered in isolation and divorced  from the context of the overall picture emerging from a consideration of the diverse circumstances and their conjoint effect may by themselves appear innocuous
It is only when the various circumstances are considered conjointly that it becomes possible to understand and appreciate their true effect  696G H In the instant case the circumstances that the appellant and the deceased who occupied a room in the hotel were seen entering the room together at midnight on the night of the occurrence the appellant was seen locking the room and leaving
the hotel the dead body was recovered from the room the appellant was found indulging in what for a man of his means was a spree of extravagance and a blood stained connecting rod was recovered from the house of the appellant s sister where he was found all point to  the guilt of the accused