iminal Appeal No 72 of 1962 Appeal by special leave from the judgment and order dated February 8 1962 of the Allahabad High Court in Criminal Appeals Nos 1728 and 1739 of 1961 and Referred No 125 of 1961
Jai Gopal Sethi AN Mulla JB Goyal CL Sareen and RL Kohli for the appellants GC Mathur and CP Lal for the respondent 1962
May 4
The Judgment of Das
Sarkar Dayal JJ was delivered by Dayal J The Judgment of Kapur and Hidayatullah JJ was delivered by Kapur J RAGHUBAR DAYAL J Raghav Prapanna Raghul Tripathi hereinafter called Raghav Ramanuj Das Jai Devi Mohan and Udham Singh appeal by special leave against the order of the High Court of Allahabad dismissing their appeal against their conviction by the sessions Judge Etawah Raghav was convicted and sentenced to death under section 302 1
P C He and the other apppellants were also convicted of the offence under section 201 I P C
Ramanuj Das was convicted of the offence under a 176 1
P C also
The prosecution case in brief is that Raghav shot dead his first wife Kamla and their son Madhusudhan aged about 4 years at about sunset on April 5 1961 at their house in village Hamirpur Roora District Etawah The motive for this conduct is id to be Raghav s not caring for Kamla and ill treating her after his marrying one Bimla in 1954
Kamla had to go to her father s place and stay there for about two years on account of the alleged ill treatment she got at her husband s 242 hands
She was however brought back by Ramanuj Das in 1960
He assured her father that she would be well looked after and that he would transfer 90 bighas of land to her and pay her Rs 10000 
It is also alleged that earlier in the day on April 51961 Ramanuj Das bad ultimately promised to Lakhan Prasad that he would execute the necessary transfer deed on Monday following and that Raghav left the place during their conversation in this regard
It is alleged that he did so as he resented the idea of so much property and cash which would have ultimately benefited him being made over to Kamla
This resentment is said to have prompted Raghav to murder his wife and son that evening
We may now mention facts to show the connection of Ramanuj Das and other accused with Raghav which is said to have led them to be parties to the disappearance of the evidence about the murders in order to protect Raghav from legal punishment and thereby to commit the offence under section 201 1
P C Lachman Das was the Mahant of the temple in village Hamirpur Roora
Narayan Das father of Raghav and Ramanuj Das were his disciples
On Lachman Das death Ramanuj Das succeeded him as Mahant though Narayan Das was the senior disciples as Narayan Das bad taken to secular life
Ramanuj Das Raghav Jai Devi mother of Raghav
Raghav s wife Kamla and Madhusudhan all lived as a joint Hindu family in the house in which there was the temple
Mohan Singh was a servant of Ramanuj Das
Udham Singh was also alleged to be a servant of Ramanuj Das
Raghav mostly lived at Lucknow with Bimla and his sisters who were studying there
He is 243 a law graduate
He possessed a jeep car whose registration number was U section J 3807
No information was conveyed by anyone to the police about the numbers for about two days
Khushali Chaukidar lodged a report at 920 a m on April 7 1961 at police station Airwa Katra District Etawah
The Station Officer was not present at the police station
This report may be usefully quoted here Day before yesterday in the night Raghav of my village who is a son of Narain Das has murdered his wedded wife and son by firing at them with the gun of Mahant Ramanuj Das
He has gone somewhere with the two dead bodies in a car
There is a rumour about it in the whole of the village
Having heard of it I went to the Mahant who is also the Pradhan of my village
I asked him to give me something in writing so that I would go to the Police Station and make a report
The Mahant then asked me to wait and to go only after Thakur Dalganjan Singh had some
I did not listen to him although he kept on forbidding
I have come to make a report
 Sub Inspector Brij Raj Singh Tomer Station Officer Airwa Katra received the copy of the first information report at 11 a m and immediately proceeded to the spot and reached there at 2 p m
He inspected the house of Ramanuj Das and prepared the site plan
He suspected blood stains at about 11 places in the house and took the stained plasters from those places and put them in different packets
All the 11 packets were then sealed in a single bundle
The Chemical Examiner found the plasters in 5 of these packets to be stained with blood
The 244 Serologist could not determine the origin of the blood on account of its disintegration
The positions of the plasters found bloodstained are not clearly made out from the various documents but in view of the fact that 11 stained plasters were taken in possession from over the door in the front wall of the southern outer room or from its floor or its wall that at least 2 of the blood stained plasters were from the southern outer room portions even if the other three blood stained plasters were from the outer wall of the northern room the roof of the temple and the floor of the southern inner room
Sub Inspeotor Brij Raj Singh Tomer did not find any of the appellants in the village
On April 12 1961 Bashir Hussain Deputy Superintendent of police visited the spot and recovered suspected blood stained earth from the parnalas of the roof of the house and also from the land on which the water of the parnalas fell
He took 7 samples of such earth put them in 7 packets and sealed them in a bundle
The Chemical Examiner found the earth of two such packets to be stained with blood
Again the Serologist could not determine the origin of blood due to disintegration
On April 16 1961 Bashir Hussain recovered Raghav s shirt and pyjama from Snowhite Cleaners  Dyers at Lucknow as they were suspected to be stained with blood
No blood was detected on the pyjama
The Chemical Examiner found blood stains on the shirt
The Serologist could not detect the origin of the blood
The police failed to discover the dead bodies of Kamla and Madhusudhan and also the jeep car
245 Raghav surrendered in the Court of the Magistrate at Barabanki on April 20
Mohan was arrested on April 9 Ramanuj Das surrendered in the Court of the Judicial Officer Bidhuna on April 24 1961 Jai Devi applied for bail on April 27 presumably she surrendered on that day
As a result of the investigation the appellants were sent up for trial
All the appellants denied that they committed the offences with and stated that they had been falsely implicated
There is no direct evidence about Raghav s committing the murder of Kamla and Madhusudhan
Neither is there direct evidence about his carrying away the dead bodies of Kamla and Madhusudhan in the jeep that night from village Hamirpar Roora as alleged for the prosecution
There is no direct evidence about Ramanuj Das or any other accused being a party to the removal of the dead bodies from the house
The entire case against the appellants depends on circumstantial evidence
We may deal with the circumstances which the learned Sessions Judge and the High Court found established and from which they concluded that Raghav murdered Kamla and Madhusudhan and that thereafter Raghav Mohan and Udham Singh with the connivance of Ramanuj Das and Jai Devi carried away the dead bodies in the jeep and disposed of them
These circumstances are 1
On April 5 1961 Kamla and Madhusudhan were in the house of Ramanuj Das 2
Kamla and Madhusudhan were last seen alive on April 5 1961 in the evening
On April 5 1961 Raghav Prapanna was also in the house of Ramanuj Das
246 4
On April 5 1961 at about 5 or 6 pm three gun shots were fired on the roof of Ramanuj Das
On April 5 1961 at about 9 or 10 p m Raghav Prapanna Mohan and Udham Singh left village Hamirpur Roora on the jeep of Raghav
On April 5 1961 at about 11 p m
Raghav Prapanna purchased petrol from Bidhuna Petrol Pump
On April 6 1961 at about 8
30 a m Raghav Prapanna crossed
Rawatpur barrier in Kanpur
On April 6 1961 Raghav Prapanna got a post card sent by his sister that Kamla had reached Lucknow safely
On April 7 1961 blood stained earth was recovered from the house of Ramanuj Das from 11 different places
On April 14 1961 blood stained earth was recovered from the house of Ramanuj Das from 7 different places
All the accused absconded after the alleged murder
Blood stained shirt and pyjama belonging to Raghav Prapanna were recovered from the possession of Snow white Dyers and Cleaners Lucknow
The police could not trace out the jeep of Raghav Prapanna in spite of beat efforts
On behalf of the appellants it is not dispute hat the circumstances numbered 1 2 7 9 10 1 247 and 13 have been established
It is contended for the appellants that the other circumstances have not been proved and that even if proved all the aforesaid circumstances are insufficient to lead to the sole conclusion that Raghav committed the murders of Kamla and Madhusudhan and that he and the other appellants were parties to the removal of the dead bodies
Kamla and Madhusudhan were in the house on April 5 1961
They were not seen after the evening of April 5 1961 The third circumstance is disputed Raghav states that he had left Hamirpur Roora on April 4
This finds support from the statement of Sri Ram PW 3 that he had seen Raghav pass via Samain in a jeep that night
He saw this on Tuesday April 4 1961 was a Tuesday
Even if he was in the village on April 5 his presence in the house does not put him in such a position that his omission to furnish information about the whereabouts of Kamla and Madhusudhan or as to what happened to them should point to his committing their murders
He was not the only person in the house to know of what happened to them
There were other persons in the house
It is true that the circumstance of his presence in the house and the absence of any activity on his part to make enquiries about Kamla and Madhusudhan when they were not seen in the house on April 6 is a conduct which is not expected from a husband even if the relations between the husband and the wife be strained
The fourth circumstance that three gun shots were fired from the roofs of Ramanuj Das at about 5 or 6 pm on April 5 cannot lead reasonably to the only conclusion or even to a reasonable suspicion that Raghav did fire those shots that he 248 fired them in the room and that he shot dead his wife and son by that firing
The connection between the firing of gun shots from the side of the roof of Ramanuj Das and the alleged murders seems to us to be too remote to arrive at the conclusion that Raghav had killed his wife and son In this connection reference may also be made to circumstances Nos 9 and 10 relating to the recovery of the bloodstained earth from the house
The blood stained earth has not been proved to be stained with human blood Again we are of opinion that it would be far fetched to conclude from the mere presence of blood stained earth that that earth was stained with human blood and that the human blood was of Kamla and Madhusudhan
These circumstances have therefore no evidentiary value
The facts that Kamla and Madhusudhan have not been seen since the evening of April 5 1961 and that blood stains not proved to be of human origin were found in that room are not sufficient for holding that they must have been murdered however strongly one may suspect it in view of the unlikelihood of their having left the house for any other place
In this connection reference may also be made to circumstance No 8
Exhibit Ka 7 was addressed by Govind Kumari sister of Raghav to Ramanuj Das on April 6 1961 from Lucknow
It is stated in this post card that Raghav etc had arrived safely and that as bhabi  had also arrived it was not necessary for her to cook food etc 
This letter according to the post mark reached Samrin Post Office on April 10 and was not delivered till April 13 to the addressee as he was not present and was ultimately handed over to 249 the Deputy Superintendent of Police in compliance with the orders of the Magistrate
under section 95 Cr P C It is alleged that this letter was written at the instigation of Raghav in order to prepare evidence about Kamla s reaching Lucknow on April 6
There is however no evidence on record about Raghav s having a hand in the sending of this letter by Govind Kumari
She was not examined to prove the contents of her letter and to explain to whom she referred to as bhabi  Raghav has stated that he had gone to Lucknow along with Rama Sewak s wife whom he also called bhabi 
That may be true or not
The fact remains that there is no evidence that Govind Kumari wrote this postcard with a purpose and at the instigation of Raghav
The evidentiary value of this postcard is nil and the conclusions that Raghav got this
letter sent is not justified when there is no evidence to that effect and there is no definite proof that the expression bhabi  referred to Kamla
Support for
the inference that the expression bhabi referred to Kamla has been found by the Court below from complete omission to Govind Kumari s sending wishes to Kamla and Madhusudhan as it is expected that if she knew that they were at Hamirpur Roora she would have conveyed her wishes to them
One can normally expect this but it is in the statement of Lakhan Prasad P W 6 that there could not have been good relations between Govind Kumari and Kamla
Lakhan Prasad deposed that on his asking Kamla the cause of her unhappiness for the last four years she told him that one Sub Inspector Iqbal visited her father in law s place and had illicit connection with Govind Kumari and that these persons together with Raghav used to take wine and meat in the temple
She further told him that her complaint to her mother in law in this respect 250 went un heeded
It follows therefore that omission of the usual courtesies in the postcard from Govind Kumari need not lead to the conclusion that it was on account of the attempt to show when need be that Kamla and her son had reached Lucknow and were alive on April 6 1961
Circumstances 5 and 6 by themselves are not sufficient to lead to the conclusion that Raghav had taken the corpses of Kamla and Madhusudhan in the jeep from the village on the night of April 5 1961 when there is no evidence of any witness about seeing any such things in the jeep which might reasonably lead to the inference that they contained the dead bodies
The 7th circumstance does not in any way go against Raghav as he himself admits to have gone to Lucknow from village Bhuwain on April 6 1961
In doing so he would pass Rawatpur barrier
This circumstance in a way supports his version and has nothing incriminating in itself
The 11th circumstance as stated is not quite correct
All the accused did not abscond after the alleged murders
Ramanuj Das himself was in the village till the morning of April 7 according to the statement of Khushali Chowkidar who lodged the first information report
If he and others left the house after knowing of the report lodged by the chowkidar that is understandable
The mere absconding however may lend weight to the other evidence establishing the guilt of the accused but by itself is hardly any evidence of guilt
The 12th circumstance is about Raghav s shirt being found to be stained with blood by the Chemical Examiner
The bloodstain has not been proved to be of human origin
In the circumstances this circumstance has no evidentiary value in 251 connecting Raghav with the offence of murder
Furtherthe shirt was recovered from the Dry Cleaners on April 16
It was given to them on April 9
The murder is said to have taken place on April 5
Bloodstain on the shirt could have been due to reasons other than Raghav s taking part in the murder of his wife and son
In this connection reference must be made to the statement of Babu Lal P W 7 the proprietor of the Snowhite Cleaners  Dyers to the effect that when Raghav gave him the shirt for washing it was not blood stained
He has also stated that even when the Sub Inspector took it in possession it was not blood stained
The High Court considered Babu Lal s statement to be untrue as he had signed the recovery list which stated that the shirt had stains suspected to be washed bloodstains
There was no statement that the shirt had bloodstains on April 9 when it was given for washing
Further if the signing of the recovery list by Babu Lal as a witness to the recovery be taken to be his statement about the correctness of its contents that statement would be inadmissible in evidence in view of section 162 Cr
The last circumstance as a piece of evidence against the accused is that the police could not trace out the jeep of Raghav in spite of best efforts
The inability of the police to find the jeep does not prove that the jeep if found would have furnished evidence against Raghav by showing the existence of human blood stains on its parts and thereby indicating that it was used in removing the corpses
If it had been recovered and human bloodstains had been found on it there would have been some evidence against the accused about the jeep having been used for removing the dead bodies
But it is too much to conclude from the non recovery of the jeep that if recovered 252 it would have afforded evidence of existence of human bloodstains and thus of its having been used to remove evidence of murder
This circumstance has therefore no evidentiary value
In this connection we must refer to the unusual conduct of the Magistrate in forwarding the letter of request by the Investigating officer under a 94 Cr P C to the Jailor requiring Raghav to convey information in whose charge he left his jeep No 3807 while surrendering in Court at Bar banki and the whereabouts of the jeep at the time
The Investigating Officer could have interrogated the accused in jail as is usually done of course with the permission of the Magistrate
But to attempt to get written replies from the accused is unusual if not unwarranted under the Code of Criminal Procedure
Any way any reply given by the accused to such a query of the Investigating Officer cannot be used in evidence in view of a 162 of the Code of Criminal Procedure
We have now dealt with the pieces of circumstantial evidence which were accepted by the Courts below and are of opinion that those circumstances are not sufficient to support the finding that Raghav committed the murder of Kamla and Madhusudhan
The facts alleged to constitute motive for Raghav to commit the murders do not necessarily provide such a motive
Raghav married Bimla in 1954 and for seven years he appears to have continued his marital relations with Kamla as well
Madhusudhan was born in 1957
He may not be showing the same affection to Kamla after his marriage with Bimla as before
There might have been something of an estrangement in his relations towards her
But all this would not afford a motive for murdering her and also their son Madhusudhan
The suggestion to Ramanuj Das to TOY 253 Rs 10000 to Kamla and also to transfer 90 Bighas of land to her even if true need not have caused such a resentment to Raghav as to decide on murdering his wife and son
There is nothing on the record to indicate how such a transfer of cash and property would affect the total property of Ramanuj Das and how ultimately Raghav would be affected by it
Apparently Raghav would have no claim to the property left by Ramanuj Das as a mahant of the mutt or temple
The property would go to the successor of Ramanuj Das
Raghav who was leading a secular life will dot succeed to the Mahantship just as his father Narain Das though a senior disciple of Lachman Das did not succeed to it
His leaving the place when Ramanuj Das was approached by Lakhan Das to transfer cash and land to Kamla does not necessarily indicate that he left as he resented the suggestion
There is no evidence that he raised any protest at the time or indicated by any expression that Ramanuj Das should not do so
We do not consider it reasonable to conclude from the mere fact of his leaving the place that be did so on account of such keen resentment as would make him commit the murders of his wife and son
Lastly there is no such circumstantial evidence which would establish that the appellants had removed and concealed the dead bodies
We have already referred to the absence of evidence about the dead bodies being carried in the jeep that night by Raghav
There is no evidence about the part which Ramanuj Das or Jai Devi played in the removal of the dead bodies
The fact that they were in the house and could have possibly known of the removal of the dead bodies if that was a fact would not by itself establish that they assisted in the removal of the bodies
We are therefore of opinion that no offence under a 201 254 I P C has been established against the appellants
Further
no offence under section 176 1
P C can be held proved against Ramanuj Das when there is no proof that Kamla and Madhusudhan were murdered
As a member of the village Panchayat he was bound to convey information to the nearest Magistrate or Officer in charge of the nearest Police Station about the commission of an offence under section 302 1
P C only when a murder
had been committed and he know about it
The conviction of the appellants for the various offences is therefore not justified on the material on record
We therefore allow the appeal set aside their conviction and acquit them of the offences they have been convicted of
They will be released forthwith from custody if not required to be detained under any other process of law
KAPUR J This is an appeal against the judgment and order of the High Court of Allahabad confirming the conviction and sentences passed on the appellants
Of the appellants Raghav Prapanna Tripathi was convicted of murdering his wife Kamla and his son Madhusudhan on the evening of April 5 1961 at Hamirpur Roora and was sentenced to death
He and other appellants were also convicted under section 201 Indian Penal Code for causing the disappearance of the evidence of the crime and were sentenced to five years  rigorous imprisonment
Appellant Ramanuj Das was further convicted under a 176 Indian Penal Code and sentenced to 3 months  rigorous imprisonment
The conviction is based on circumstantial evidence
This Court in Anant Chintaman Lagu vs The State of Bombay has laid down the princi 1 19602 SCR 460
255 ples which govern such cases
In that case Hidayatullah J at p 516 quoting the observations of Baron Parke in Towell s case1 where the learned Baron laid down the principles applicable to such cases observed that any circumstance which destroys the presumption of innocence if properly established can be taken into account to find out if the circumstances lead to no other inference but of guilt
Thus what we have to see is whether taking the totality of circumstances which are held to have been proved against the appellants it can be said that the case is established against the appellants ie the facts established are inconsistent with the innocence of the appellants and incapable of explanation on any hypothesis other than that of guilt
See also Govind Reddy State of Mysore2
It may also be observed here that ordinarily this court does not reassess the evidence and reexamine the findings reached by the courts below particularly where there are concurrent findings of fact but it was urged before us that this is one of those cases where the rule laid down by the Privy Council in Stephen Seneviratne vs The king 3 applies ie on the evidence taken as a whole no tribunal could as a matter of legitimate inference arrive at the conclusion that the appellants are guilty
The inference of guilt of the appellants has been drawn from a number of circumstances which according to the appellants do not lead to the irresistible conclution that they are guilty and which according to the submission of the res pondent lead to only one conclusion and one alone that the appellants have been rightly convicted and sentenced
In order to satisfy ourselves at to the guilt of the appellants we have found it expedient in this case to go into the evidence and see whether the conviction is rightly based
1 2 AIR 1960 SC 29
3 AIR 1931 P C 289 299
256 In village Hamirpur Roora which is in Itawah district there is a religious institution of which Lachhman Das was the Mahant
He had two chelas disciples tHe elder was Narain Das and the younger Ramanuj Das who is one of the appellants in the present case
Narain Das got married and was therefore excluded from succession
His wife is Jai Devi who is also an appellant and they has several children amongst whom is their son Raghav who is another appellant in the case and they have got younger sons and some daughters amongst whom we need only mention Govind Kumari who is MALLB of the Lucknow University but she is neither a witness nor an accused in the case
The other two accused are Mohan Singh and Udham Singh who are retainers if the Mahant
Raghav in the year 1950 was married to Kamla who was the daughter of Rain Sarup a well to do gentleman living in another village
In 1954 Raghav married another girl who is also an MA LLB and she and Raghav with Govind Kumari and other sisters were living at Lucknow in a flat in Shankarpuri
The case for the prosecution is that after the marriage the relations between Kamla the first wife and Raghav were stained and she was ill treated by her husband and Kamla had to leave her father in law s house and to go and live with her father in his village
Before this Kamla and Raghav bad a son Madhusudhan who was born in 1957
While Kamla was staying with her father PW Lakhan Prasad intervened and suggested to Ramanuj Das appellant to give to Kamla Rs 10000 in cash and 90 bighas of land and this was agreed to by Ramanuj Das and on this assurance Ramanuj Das went to Kamla s father s house and brought back Kamla after the Bidai ceremony was perform
It has I been stated in the evidence of Ram Sarup which has been accepted by the High Court that Ramanuj Das himself had told him Ram Sarup that the money and the land would be given
257 Sometimes in February 1961 ie about a month and half before the date of the alleged occurrence Ram Sarup went to the house of Ramanuj Das along with Lakhan Prashad PW He asked Ramanuj Das to execute the document in respect of the property and also in regard to the money and they were told by Ramanuj Das that after Raghav returned from Lucknow this would be done
After having this talk Ramanuj Das Ram Sarup and Lakhan Prasad met Kamla in the house of Ramanuj Das and apprised her of this arrrangement
On April 4 1961 Lakhan Prasad came to know about the arrival of Raghav and on the following day ie April 5 1961 he want to Vamanuj Das as he had been instructed by Ram Sarup and there he found both Ramanuj Das and Raghav
Lakhan Prasad then asked Ramanuj Das that the promise in regard to Rs10000 and 90 bighas of land should be carried into effect
Thereupon it is stated that Raghav got up abruptly and left the place but Ramanuj Das promised to execute the document on the day Ram Sarup could come
Lakhan Prasad told Ramanuj Das that he would go to Ram Sarup on Saturday ie April 8 1961 and bring him on the following day ie April 9 1961 and then the document could be executed on Monday April 101961
This arrangement was accepted by Ramanuj Das Lakhan Prasad then went and informed Kamla about it
According to the prosecution both Kamla and Madhusudan were murdered with gun shots sometime in the evening of April 5 1961 the day the above  talk took place
These gunshots were heard by three witnesses
The same evening Raghav left Hamirpur Roora by jeep accompanied by appellants Mohan Singh and Udham Singh I hey were seen passing through the village Samain at about 9 O clock by P W Sri Ram
They then proceeded to Bidhupa where petrol was purchased from the shop of one Rain Bhajan PW
This was at about 258 11 PM Ram Bhajan saw two other persons in the jeep which was being driven by Raghav
They then crossed the Ganga at Kanpur at the Rawatpur Barrier at 830 am and from there proceeded to Lucknow A post card was sent from Lucknow on April 6 1961 by Govind Kumari in regard to the arrival of Raghav and others
It is not disputed that Kamla and Madhusudan were not seen alive after the evening of April 5 1961
As a matter of fact it is admitted that she became traceless after Raghav left Hamirpur Roora
On April 7 1961 Khushali Chowkidar of the village made a First Information Report at the police station to the following effect Day before yesterday in the night Raghav of my village who is son of Narain Das has murdered his wedded wife and son by firing of them with the gun of Mahant Ramanuj Das
He has gone some where with the two dead bodies in a car
There is a rumour about it in the whole of the village
Having heard of it I went to the Mahant who is also the Pradhan of my village
I asked him to give me something in writing so that I should go to the Police Station and make a report
The Mahant then asked me to wait and to go only after Thakur Dalganjan Singh had come
I did not listen to him although he kept on forbidding
I have come to make a report
The Sub inspector in charge of the Police Station had gone in connection with some official duty and therefore the above information was sent to him by the police
He came to Hamirpur Roora at about 2 pm and inspected the house where the deceased was residing
According to his statement he did not find any one in the house he took some witnesses along with him and made a search of the house and there he found some patches 259 which looked like blood on the terrace and in the rooms of the first floor
He prepared a site plan and made a memorandum of what he saw there
This site plan and the memorandum that he prepared have been proved
He took into possession blood stained plaster pieces from II places from inside the room put them into separate packets and made the packets into a bundle and sealed it
On April 12 1961 Police Deputy Superintendent Bashir Hussain took in and the investigation and came to the place of the occurrence and found seven other places where there were marks which looked like blood marks and he took the earth into possession
These included places like Parnalas water spots
These were also made into a sealed parcel but unfortunately all these articles were not sent to the Chemical Examiner till May 25 1961 and when examined out of 11 pieces which had been collected by the Sub lnspector five were found to be bloodstained and of out seven pieces collected by Deputy Superintendent Bashir Hussian only two were found to be bloodstained
When these articles were sent to the Serologist the origin of the blood could not be ascertained as the blood by that time had disintegrated
The Sub Inspector searched for the accused persons but could not find any one at the house or at other places
On April 10 1961 he arrested Mohan Singh appellant but the others could not be traced
They excepting Raghav surrendered themselves on different dates in the Magistrate s court in the district of Etawah Ramanuj Das on April 24 and Jai Devi on April 27
The Sub Inspector started a search for Raghav looked for him in different places in Lucknow but he could not find him nor was his jeep found
April 20 1961 Raghav surrendered in the court of the Magistrate at 260 Nawabganj in the district of Barabanki
In the application he stated as follows 2
That Srimati Kamla daughter of Ram Swarup of village Manchhana P section Kotwali District Mainpuri residing in my house has become traceless along with her minor son and in this connection a strong rumour has been set afloat by the enemies of the applicant s family to the effect that she has been murdered
 He also stated that his name was being associated with the murder because of enmity
AD Affidavit was filed in the court of the Magistrate by Govind Kumari sister of the appellant in which it was stated that Kamla had run away from the house of Ramanuj Das after stealing ornaments
The jeep in which Raghav had left Hamirpur Roora Was never found in spite of the best efforts of the Police
During the course of their investigations the police recovered from the laundry of on Babulal PW in Lucknow a shirt and a pyjama belonging to appellant Raghav
The police thought that there were blood marks both on the shirt as well as the pyjama but the Chemical Examiner only found three minute size bloodstains on the shirt but the origin of this blood also could not be discovered as the blood had disintegrated
The appellants were then tried before the learned Sessions Judge who convicted them as has been said above
The conviction was upheld by the High Court and the appellants have come to this court by special leave
It may be remarked that the dead body of Kamla or her son Madhusudan was never found and this is a case where there is no direct proof of corpus delicti
The question is whether in a case 261 like this and on the evidence which we are going to discuss it can be said that a ease of murder has been proved and it has also been proved as to who committed the murder and further whether a case under section 201 has been made out
There are certain facts in this case which are not in controversy
The appellant Raghav after having been married to Kamla for about four years married a second time
His second wife is Vimla who is a graduate of the Lucknow University
It is not disputed that some time in 1959 Kamla with her son Madhusudan who was born in 1957 went to live with her parents her father being a well to do resident of another village
She stayed with her parents for about two years and was brought back to Hamirpur Roora some time in 1960
The prosecution case is that this was on the promise that she will be given Rs 10 00 in cash and 90 bighas of land but this is denied by the defence
The High Court has found this fact proved
There is again no dispute about their Kamla and her son Madhasudan being alive upto the evening of April 5 1961
On the night between April 5 and April 6 both Kamla and Madhusudan disappeared
They were not seen at the house of Ramanuj Das where they were residing and where also were residing her father in law and his family and her husband whenever he came to the village from Lucknow where he was a University student and where he had a flat of his own for his residence and that of his second wife Vimla and his sisters
It is also clear on this record that none of the members of the family ie Ramanuj Das Jai Devi or any other made the slightest attempt to trace the whereabout of Kamla and her son after their disappearance
No report was made to the Police no search was made
On the other hand when the chowkidar of the village Khushali P W asked Ramanuj Das 262 to give something in writing so that he could inform the Police regarding the rumour which was afloat in the village about the murder of Kamla and her son he told him to wait till Dalgajan Singh came
It was after this that the chowkidar made a report at the Police Station
The first question is as to whether Kamla and her son were murdered and the murder was committed in the house of Ramanuj Das as alleged by the prosecution
As we have said above both Kamla and her son were seen alive till the evening of April 5 1961 and they were not seen thereafter
Both the courts below have found and there is evidence on the record that relations between Kamla and he husband Raghav were strained and it was for that reason that she had gone away to her parents house
Ram Swarup Kamla s father has deposed to this and so has Lakhan Prasad who deposed that whenever he met Kamla he found her to be unhappy
Ordinarily amongst families such as that of the appellant daughters in law do not go away to stay at their parents house unless there is reason for it
 The High Court has considered this evidence in regard to the relations between the husband and the wife at great length and it is not necessary to repeat those statements of the witnesses which have been referred to in the judgment of the High Court
We are satisfied that on this evidence the High Court has rightly found that the relations between the two were unhappy
In those circumstances it has to be enquired as to how and why Kamla came back to the house of her in laws along with her son
For that the evidence again is of Ram Swarup and Lakhan Prasad
Somewhere in 1960 Lakhan Prasad went to Ram Swarup and asked him that Kamla should be sent to Hamirpur Roora and that there would be no further trouble
we also told Ram Swarup that Ramanuj Das had decided to give Kamla a sum of Rs 10000 in cash 263 and 90 bighas of Land for cultivation on the understanding that she would reside at Hamirpur Roora
On this condition Ramanuj Das came and took Kamla with him after the bidai ceremony
On that occasion according to ham Swarup Ramanuj Das told him that he would settle the money and the land as promised
Sometime in February 1961 Ram Swarup accompanied by Lakhan Prasad went to the house of Ramanuj Das and asked him to perform his part of the promise to which Ramanuj Das replied that be would do so on the arrival of Raghav from Lucknow
On April 5 1961 the date of the alleged murder Lakhan Prasad went to the house of Ramanuj Das and there he had a talk with Ramanuj Das Raghav was also sitting near Ramanuj Das
When Lakhan Prasad started talking about this matter Raghav got up and went away but Ramanuj Das promised that he would execute the document on Monday April 10 1961 and it was arranged that Ram Swarup would also be present by them and Lakhan Prasad informed Kamla of this fact
The defence has denied this part of the prosecution ease and before us the evidence of Lakhan Prasad was severely criticised and reliance was placed on the criticism of this witness by the learned Sessions Judge
It appears that the learned Sessions Judge has been unduly severe on Lakhan Prasad merely because of a post card which was produced by Ramanuj Das and proved by defense witnesses that the marriage between Kamla and Raghav was not brought about by Lakhan Prasad but by Dafadar Singh
Lakhan Prasad had deposed that he had brought about the marriage
It was also said that Lakhan Prasad was unable to recognise the photograph of Govind Kumari and other children and thus could not be very familiar with the family
But the evidence of Lakhan Prasad gets strong corroboration from the evidence of Ram Swarup
The 264 High Court was satisfied that on that day Ramanuj Das had agreed that he would execute such a document and we see no reason to differ from the finding of the High Court The fact that Ramanuj Das was present for the settlement of money and land in favour of Kamla is amply proved on this record and it is equally clear that when this matter was broached in the presence of Raghav he suddenly left the place from which an inference might well be and has rightly been drawn that he was not very happy about this settlement
On the same evening three shots were heard by three witnesses P W Narain Singh PW Lallu Singh and P W Babu Singh
Both the courts below have accepted the testimony of these witnesses
We have gone through the evidence of these witnesses and although there may be certain points on which the testimony of
these witnesses may legitimately be subjected to criticism those points are Dot sufficient to detract from their evidence that they did bear three shots being fired
The defence had put forward the theory that it was the firing of a toy gun by the younger brother of Raghav which these witnesses heard on that day but this plea has rightly not been accepted by the High Court
The question then arises whether Raghav was in the village on April 5 the date of the murder
The case for Raghav is that he had left on the 4th and that he was not in the village on the 5th
One fact which has been taken into consideration against this plea is the statement of Lakhan Prasad when he states that in the presence of Raghav the question of settlement of land and of money was discussed and n Raghav got up and went away
This according to Lakhan Prasad was on the 5th
Then 265 there is the evidence to show that the jeep of appellant Raghav was seen in the house of Ramanuj Das on the evening of th
This evidence is of P W Narain Singh who saw the jeep in the house and of P W Lallu Singh who saw the jeep of Raghav going towards the north at about 9 or 10 O Clock on the evening of April 5 1961 and finally the evidence of P W Babu Singh who says that on the same evening he heard the sound of car at about 10 p m
He also stated that the only person who had a jeep or a car was Raghav
These witnesses have been believed and after going through their evidence we are of the opinion that they have been rightly believed
There is then the evidence of P W Sri Ram who says that on April 5
at about 10 pm he saw the jeep of Raghav in village Samain which is at a distance of a mile and in that jeep there were the appellant Raghav and the two appellants Mohan Singh and Udham Singh and that the back curtain of the jeep was drawn
This evidence was criticised on the ground that this witness had made a mistake as to the date which was 4th and also that he did not meet the appellant s jeep there but at another place on the canal bank and it is argued that the statement of this witness is compatible with the case of the defence
It appears to us that Sri Ram has made a mistake about the date
He was deposing after a long time but corroboration is from another source and that shows that Sri Ram must have seen the jeep on the 5th and not the 4th
The jeep was seen at Hamirpur Roora on the 5th by two witnesses
Raghav was seen at the house on the 5th by Lakhan Prasad and his further movements have been traced also
Raghav took petrol from P W Ram Bhajjan who states that the petrol was purchased about 10 30 P M or 11 p m and considering the distance between Bidhauna and Samain that would probably be the 266 time when Raghav would be in Bidhuna
The evidence of this witness was also criticised that he made a mistake in regard to time and that petrol was brought at 2 p m and not in the night
It was argued that other cash memos bad not been taken from Ram Bhajjan which if they had been taken would have shown that the petrol was taken not at 10 30 p m or 11 p m but earlier in the afternoon
This witness has given good reasons why he remembered the time when petrol was taken by him
He stated that two days later he heard the rumour and then remembered the time and the date on which Raghav bad bought petrol from him
He was criticised for not remembering the time when Raghav bought petrol on the 4th but then he had no reason to recall that visit
In our opinion the testimony of this witness has been rightly accepted by the courts below
On the morning of 6th the jeep was seen at the barrier at the river Ganga at Kanpur at 8 30 a m and then Raghav went to Lucknow
From the evidence of demand of Lakhan Prasad for the Settlement of land on Kamla on April 5 1961 in the presence of Raghav from the fact that the jeep of Raghav was seen in the village in the evening and his jeep was seen going from village Hamirpur Roora and again at Samain and Bhidhuna an inference has rightly been drawn that appellant Raghav was present in village Hamirpur Roora on April 5 and his plea that he left that village on the 4th is false
The police was informed about the rumour in the village of the murder of Kamla and her son on April 7 and the Sub Inspector Brijraj Singh Tomar came to the house of Ramanuj Das at about 2 pm
He went into the house and inspected the place of occurrence and prepared a site plan and memo showing as to what he saw
This he has sworn to be correct and there is no reason to doubt his testimony
According to his statement he found 267 what appeared to be blood at different places in the rooms and be took the plaster from those places
As we have said above the origin of this blood has not been proved because of disintegration but the fact is that blood was found in the rooms
The case put forward by appellant Raghav was that he started from the village on April 4 and want to his mother s father s house at Shah Nagla
From there he took with him his Dada Ram Sewak and the wife of Ram Sawak whom he called Bhabhi
He started from that place on April 5 1961 at about 12 noon took petrol from Bidhuna and reached Samain which he wants us to read as Bhawain where his mother s sister is married and where he want to condole because the father in law of his mother s sister bad died and from there he started from Lucknow on April 6 1961 after taking refreshments
All these facts were capable of easy proof if facts they were
Neither the Dada nor the Bhabhi were examined The two persons who saw the appellant go in the jeep are P W Sri Ram and PW Ram Bhajan
The testimony of these witnesses has been believed by the courts below and with that we have agreed
Neither of them says that they saw a woman in the jeep
If the appellant left with Mohan Singh and Udham Sinah then there should have been four individuals in the jeep besides the appellant at the petrol pump
That is not the statement of P M Ram Bhajan nor is there any proof that as a matter of fact the father in law of the appellant s mother s sister Massi had died or that the appellant had gone there for the purpose of condoling or that he went there at all
We are unable to accept this explanation given by the appellant in view of the testimony of the witnesses who have been discussed above
Thus after the three gunshots were fired and heard by the three witnesses the appellant s jeep was seen leaving the village
It was seen in Samain with 268 the two appellants Mohan Singh and Udham Singh and it was then seen at Bidbuna with two persons sitting at the back
This was on April 5
The explanation given by the
appellant therefore is false
When the appellant reached Lucknow his sister wrote a letter saying that the appellant etc
had arrived and that Bhabhi had also come and as Bhabhi has come over here so I have not to worry about cooking of food
The defence submit that what was meant by Bhabhi wag Vimla or it may be Dada s wife and therefore it cannot he said that there was any oblique motive in the writing of this post card so as to create evidence in regard to Kamla being alive on April 6 1951
The prosecution has rightly argued that in this post card there is no mention of Kamla
The father uncle and mother and three younger children are mentioned but not Kamla or Madbusudan
To this the reply of counsel for the appellant was that there was not much love lost between Kamla and Govind Kumari and for that reason her name was not mentioned
But there wag nothing against the little boy who could have been mentioned as the other children
Even if Govind Kumari s distaste be true that is an additional reason for saying that Kamla was not a very welcome member of the family of her in laws
The appellant then was found to be absconding
According to Sub Inspector Tomar efforts were made to search for him in different places where he would ordinarily be in the town of Lucknow or elsewhere but he was not found
Ultimately he went to Nawabganj in the district of Barabanki where on April 20 1961 he surrendered himself before a Magistrate
In the application that he made for surrendering himself he stated as has been said above that Kamla do Ram Swarup who was living in his house was missing and it was being 269 said by his enemies that she had murdered and that his name had been mentioned in that connection due to enmity and that a warrant had issued against him although be was wholly unaware of her disappearance
This is rather an extraordinary conduct on the part of a husband
There is nothing to indicates that any attempt was made by the hus band to search for the missing wife and the child or anything was done by him in regard to that matter
He may not have worried about the mother but what about the child The allegation of the prosecution that he was absconding and that when they searched for him they could not find him is satisfactorily established on this record
We are aware that the burden of proving everything against the appellant is on the prosecution and there is no burden on him to disprove anything but in a case of circumstantial evidence where there are circumstance of the kind which are proved in this case the cumulative effect has to be seen by placing together proved facts any conclusion drawn therefrom and in the absence of any explanation all that one has to consider is the prosecution evidence
There is another important circumstance  A shirt of the appellant was recovered from a laundry on April 16
It was found to be bloodstained although the origin of the blood has not been proved by the prosecution
The fact remains that at three places this shirt which was given by the appellant on April 9 1961 was found to be blood stained
Counsel for the appellant argued that this was a most innocuous circumstance because there is no proof that there was blood on the shirt on April 9 when it was given to the laundry and that merely three specks of blood being found on the 16th ie seven days later is not a circumstance which can be taken against the appellant
With this we do not agree
The appellant must consider himself lucky that the shirt was washed or it would 270 have cleared him or inculpated him still more
The fact that the blood was not visible to Babulal when the shirt was taken is not a circumstance which goes against the prosecution case because books on medical jurisprudence show that bloodstains are sometimes faint and invisible by ordinary light
The shirt was given to be laundered and Babulal will look for tears and damage and not for stains or dirt for which the shirt was given to be cleaned
The colour of the shirt was khaki and it is likely that the small stains would go unnoticed
After all the shirt was given for a wash
It is true that the blood was found on April 16 1961 and there is no proof that it was there on April 9 1961 but we see no reason why blood should suddenly appear seven days later on the shirt of Raghav
When be was asked in regard to this bloodstained shirt his answer was I do not know
In the circumstances the courts were justified in taking this to be a circumstance in the chain of circumstances which have to be placed together in order to determine whether the case has been made out against the appellant or not
Another very striking circumstance against the appellant is that the jeep in which Ragbav travelled from the village to Lucknow has vanished from the face of this earth
In spite of the beat efforts of the police it has not been found
Evidently the police wanted to interrogate the appellant in regard the whereabouts of the jeep but it appears that by an order dated April 28 1961 the Magistrate ordered that the Investigating Officer should issue a written order requiring Raghav to produce the jeep as well as to interrogate the accused that the accused is at liberty to say whatever be likes and he could not be compelled either to produce the thing or to tell its whereabouts as this is his privilege under the law
It is then that the police made an order calling upon the appellant Raghav to produce the 271 jeep and of course it was never produced nor found
His reply cannot be read under section 162 Criminal Procedure Code and we leave have it out of account altogether
Every possible place was searched and it is significant that it has not been found till today and even when the evidence was being led about its disappearance the evidence was not contradicted
by driving the jeep to the court house and saying here it is
This in our opinion is a circumstance which can be taken into consideration in order to determine the guilt or otherwise of the appellant
In the opinion of the High Court the jeep has not been produced because it must be bloodstained on account of the dead bodies having been carried in it
It is quite obvious that however much the jeep be washed the chances would be that in some crevice in some joint or in some bolt nut or screw blood may still remain adhearing
But if the jeep is not produced there can be no risk of detection and the inference from its disappearance can be countered by arguments as it has actually been
The non production of the jeep is a strong circumstance against appellant Raghav which the courts below were entitled to
take into consideration
Articles  like jeeps do not just disappear in this air and when they do disappear and cannot be traced as they have not been traced in this cage and when the allegation is that they have been used for carrying away the dead bodies their non production or their not being found is a circumstance which a court can take into consideration in determining the guilt of an accused person
It may also he added that the other appellants were also absconding
Why the whole household went away is not just a coincidence
If the girl and the child had disappeared in innocent circumstances there was hardly reason for all of them to panic
None of them proved why they were so difficult to get at or what was the urgent business which had 272 called them away
Mohan Singh was arrested on April 9 Ramanuj Das surrendered on April 24 and in his application he stated that be bad been informed by A P Dubey that be was wanted
Jai Devi surrendered on April 27 1961 and claimed to be a purdanashin lady and her appearance in court was excused and she was released on bail
Thus all the accused persons were found to be absconding and except one the other four were not arrested but they surrendered in the court of the Magistrate and of them 3 were released on bail
We have therefore the following circumstances which the Courts have taken into considerations  1 strained relations between Raghav and his wife Kamla 2 there was an agreement by Ramanuj Das of making a settlement of land and money in favour of Kamla and on the insistence of Ram Swarup father of Kamla Ramanuj Das bad agreed that the document would be executed on Monday ie April 10 1961  3 it is also proved that when the matter was discussed in the presence of appellant Raghav whose arrival was awaited for finalising the arrangement he got up and went away and it is also established that Kamla had been brought from the house of her parents on the express condition that such a settlement would be made 4 on April 5 1961 appellant Raghav was in village Hamirpur Roora and on that evening three gunshots were fired and some time later Raghav left in his jeep with two other appellants Mohan Singh and Udham Singh and after Raghav left Kamla and her son were found missing from the house 5 although this fact was discovered the next day no attempt was made to search for Kamla and her son 6 Appellant Raghav and his two companions travelled by night from village Hamirpur Roora according to witnesses he was in a hurry and were found on the 6th morning at Kanpur and the same day they reached Lucknow as the post card written by 273 Govind Kumari shows
In that post card it is stated that the appellant and others had arrived at Lucknow
The explanation of the appellant was that he left on the 4th and took his Dada and his Bhabbi along with him but this explanation has not been accepted and is a false explanation 7 thereafter the appellant made himself scarce and the police could not trace him till he surrendered himself in the court of a magistrate at Nawabgunj where he made an application stating that one Kamla was found missing and that he was being suspected of murdering her 8 why he should have gone to Nawabgunj is not quite clear and of course neither he nor any of his relatives made any attempt to look for Kamla 9 when the chowkidar of the village told Ramanuj Das about the rumour in the village of the murder of Kamla he was asked by Ramanuj Das not to make the report till Dalganjan Singh had arrived Dalganjan Singh we are told is an Up Pradhan of the Panchayat the report was made by the chowkidar on the 4th and the police came the same day and inspected the house of Ramanuj Das  10 In the rooms upstairs blood was found at 5 places
According to the memo prepared and deposed to in Court there were marks of blood having been wiped off at many places and the Chemical Examiner found the marks on these various places of plaster which had been taken into possession by the sub Inspector to be of blood but its origin could not be determined due to disintegration 11 on April 12 D Sp
Bashir Hussain
found the blood at 2 places more in the house of the Ramanuj Das
The origin of this blood has also not been proved due to disintegration 12 on April 16 a bloodstained shirt of Raghav was found from a laundry 13 no explanation is given of this blood on the shirt and 14 on April 5 1961 both Kamla and her son disappeared from the fact of this earth and nobody has heard of them and no attempt has on made to find out as to what happened to them 274 and instead false explanation was given that Kamla had left with her child and a suggestion was made in the cross examination that she had eloped with one Chander Sekhar and thus had vanished from the house
It may be stated that there is no reasons why she should have disappeared when according to evidence she was going to get land and money and when she had her father who could look after her and was in affluent circumstances 15 Coupled with this is the fact of disappearance of jeep in which the appellant travelled from his village to Lucknow 16 and a wholly false explanation was given as to the movement of the appellant Raghav
From these circumstances the courts below came to the conclusion that the murder was committed at the house of Ramanuj Das
We find no reason to disagree with the conclusions drawn from the evidence that Kamla and her son Madhusudhan are dead and they met their death by violence in the house of Ramanuj Das
In king Horry 1 the headnote states the law as follows At the trial of a person charged with murder the fact of death is provable by circumstantial evidence not withstanding that neither the body nor any trace of the body has been found and that the accused has made no confession of any participation in the crime
Before he can be convicted the fact of death should be proved by such circumstances as render the commission of the crime morally certain and leave no ground for reasonable doubt the circumstantial evidence should be so cogent and compelling as to convince a jury that upon no rational hypothesis other than murder can the facts be accounted for
 1 1952 NZLR III
275 This statement of the law was approved in Regina vs Onufrejczyk1 except as to moral certainty and that statement of the law has received approval of this court in Anant Chintaman Lagu vs The State of Bombay2
It was also said in King vs Horry 3 That the jury viewing the evidence as a whole was entitled to regard the concurrence of so many separate facts and circumstances themselves established beyond all doubt and all pointing to the fact of death on or about July 13 1942 as excluding any reasonable hypothesis other than the death of the person alleged to have been murdered and as having therefore sufficient probative force to establish her death
 In this connection it would be apposite  to quote from the judgment in Lagu s case2 at page 506 where it was observed In Rex vs Horry 1952 NZLR 111 where the entire case law in England was presented for the consideration of the Court
It was pointed out by the Court that there was no rule in England that corpus delicti must be proved by direct evidence establishing the death of the person and further the cause that death
Reference was made to Evans vs Evans 161 ER 466 491
Where it was ruled that corpus delicti might be proved by direct evidence or by irresistible grounds of presumption
In the same case it has been pointed out that in New Zeland the Court upheld numerous convictions where the body of the victim was never found
 The two cases referred to above ie King vs Horry1 and Regina vs Onufrejczyk 1 are cases of conviction 1 1955 1 QB 388
2 3 1952 NZ LR III
276 no doubt by juries on evidence which was wholly circumstantial but in both those cases neither the body was found nor any trace of the body was found and there was no confession by the accused of any participation in the crime and the conviction was based on the occurrence of so many separate facts and circumstances all pointing to the fact of death on or about a particular date and excluded any reasonable hypothesis other than the death of the person alleged to have been murdered and this was held to be of Bufficient probative force to establish death
In the present case the circumstances which have been proved and to repeat the circumstances are strained relations between the husband and wife motive to escape the giving of money and land or maintenance to the wife or the child suddenly leaving the village at night with two others and almost simultaneous disappearance of Kamla and her son no search for her and absolute callousness or the part of Raghav subsequent false explanation being given and his absconding are all circumstances from which the courts below were justified in concluding the Kamla and her son were murdered and that Raghav had a predominent motive to commit the murder
The High Court found that Raghav had a strong motive to commit the murder and after taking all the circumstances into consideration came to the conclusion that the Sessions Judge had rightly convicted Raghav of murder
No two cases can have the same facts but the principles applied in placing the various links in the chain of events and circumstances by the High Court are in our opinion wholly correct and they have rightly drawn the conclusion that the appellant Raghav was guilty of the offence with which he was charged
The inculpatory facts which have been proved were in the opinion of the High Court inconsistent with the innocence of the appellant and are not capable of explanation or any other hypothesis except his 277 guilt and as was said by this Court in Govinda vs State of Mysore1 In cases where the evidence is of circum stantial nature the circumstances from which the conclusion of guilt is to be drawn should in the first instance be fully established and all the facts so established should be consistent only with the hypothesis of the guilt of the accused
Again the circumstances should be of a conclusive nature and tendency and they should be such as to exclude every hypothesis but the one proposed to be proved
In other words there must be a chain of evidence so far complete as not to leave any reasonable ground for a conclusion consistent with the innocence of the accused and it must be such as to show that within all huma n probabilities the act must have been done by the accused
The principle that the inculpatory fact must be inconsistant with the innocence of the accused and incapable of explanation on any other hypothesis than that of guilt does not mean that any extravagant hypothesis would be sufficient to sustain the principle but that the hypothesis suggested must be reasonable
 The evidence in this case and the inferences drawn from the evidence by the courts below do not fall in what was said by Baron Alderson in his charge to the jury in Re vs Hodge2 where it was said The mind was apt to take a pleasure in adapting circumstances to one another and even in straining them a little if need be to force them to form parts of one connected whole and the more ingenious the mind of the individual the more likely was it considering such matter to overreach and lm0 1 AIR1960 SC29
2 278 mislead itself to supply some little link that is wanting to take for granted some fact consistent with its previous theories and necessary to render them complete
 Therefore in our view the courts below having applied correct principles and having found the circumstances to be such which can only be explained on the hypothesis of the guilt of appellant Raghav have rightly found the appellant to be guilty
He had the immediate motive to rid himself of the wife
His child was just as undesirable and indeed the child could not be kept back and the mother murdered
Jai Devi as the murderer by gun shots was out of the question
Ramanuj  Das was trying to placate Kamla by promising money and lands
The servants had I no reason to murder their mistress
It is manifest that the shots must have been fired by Raghav who took steps also to rid the bodies and the jeep which carried them
If the jeep was not connected it would have come forth if not in the investigation at least during the trial
We therefore dismiss the appeal of Raghav and see no reason to disagree with the opinion of the courts below that no sentence other than death was called for in this case
The murder was a venal one and had been committed to get rid of an inconvenient wife and her child
Then the question arises whether a case is made out section 201 of the Indian Penal Code and if so against whom  The two appellants Mohan Singh and Udham Singh were with the appellant Raghav in his jeep and if the dead body was taken away in his jeep as it has been held by the Courts below that they were then the case against these two appel lants is proved
It is said that no one saw the dead bodies being carried
That may be so but the conclusion drawn is from circumstantial evidence ie series of events which lead to the conclusion of 279 guilt
We have already said that murder was committed in the house of Ramanuj Das on the evening of April 5 1961
There was disappearance of Kamla and Madhusudan and sudden departure of Raghav and these two appellants
They were in a hurry and the back curtains of jeep were drawn
They travelled all night and took almost 11 hours to reach the barrier at Kanpur
There is no trace of Kamla and her child
No one has seen them since their disappearance on April 5
From these proved facts the courts drow the inference of an offence under a 201 Indian Penal Code which in our opinion was correct
Thus these two appellants have been rightly convicted and their appeals are dismissed
In regard to the case of Ramanuj Das and Jai Devi the finding of the High Court is that the dead bodies of Kamla and her son Madbusudan were not found in the house of Ramanuj Das and they must have therefore been removed  that an attempt was made to wash out the bloodstains from inside the rooms and also outside on the roof  that the dead bodies could not have been removed without the knowledge and active cooperation of Ramanuj Das and Jai Devi and further that both Ramanuj Das and Jai Devi absconded
On this basis the conviction of these appellants was held by the High Court to be justified
It is true that the murder was committed in the house of Ramanuj Das and that there is the evidence to show that the blood inside and outside the living rooms was washed and an attempt was made to obliterate any sign of it though it was unsuccessful
It also may be that both Ramanuj Das and Jai Devi had knowledge of the removal of the dead bodies but what section 201 requires is causing any evidence of the commission of the offence to disappear or for giving any information respecting the offence which a person knows or believes to be false
In this case there is no evidence of either
It is not shown that 280 these two appellants caused any evidence to disappear
There may be a very strong suspicion that if from the house dead bodies are removed or blood was washed person placed in the position of the appellants must have had
a hand in it but still that remains a suspicion even a strong suspicion at that
It is true that they were absconding but merely absconding will not fill the gap or supply the evidence which is necessary to prove the ingredients of section 201 of the Indian Penal Code
In our opinion the case against Ramanuj Das and Jai Devi has not been made out
There appeals must therefore be allowed and they be set at liberty
We have found that the murder was committed in the house of Ramanuj Das and that disappearance of the dead bodies took place from that house
Ramanuj Das did have the knowledge of the commission of the murder and he took no steps to inform the police about it
In these circumstances he has been rightly convicted under section 176 of the Indian Penal Code and his appeal in regard to conviction under that section is dismissed
By COURT
The appeal of Raghav Prapanna Tripathi Mohan and Udham Singh is allowed by majority and that of Ramanuj Das and Jai Devi for offence under section 201 of the Indian Penal Code is allowed unanimously
The appeal of Ramanuj Das for offence under section 176 of the Indian Penal Code is allowed by majority


Summary:
The appellants were prosecuted and committed to the Sessions for trial
Raghav was convicted and sentenced to death under section 302 IPC He and Jai Devi his mother Ramanuj Das Mohan Singh and Udham Singh were convicted under section 201 IPC
Ramanuj Das was also convicted under section 176 IPC
Their appeals were dismissed by the High Court
They came to this court by special leave
The appeal of Raghav Mohan Singh and Udham Singh was allowed by majority that of Ramanuj Das and jai Devi for offence under section 201 IPC was allowed unanimously and appeal of Ramanuj Das for offence under section 176 IPC was allowed by a majority
Held Kapur and Hidayatullaha JJ dissenting that there was no direct evidence about Raghav committing the murder of Kamla and Madhusudan
There was no direct evidence about his carrying away their dead bodies in the jeep
There was no direct evidence about Ramanuj Das or any other accused being a party to the removal of the dead bodies from the house
The entire case was based on circumstantial evidence
The circumstances proved against Raghav were not sufficient to support the finding that he had committed the murder
The mere absconding may lend weight to the other evidence establishing the guilt of the accused but by itself that is hardly any evidence of guilt
It was too much to conclude from the non recovery of the jeep that if it had been recovered it would have afforded evidence of existence of human blood stain and of its having been used to remove evidence of murder
That circumstance had no evidentiary value
There was no evidence about the part Ramanuj Das or Jai Devi played in the removal of the dead bodies
The fact that they were in the house and could have possibly known of the removal of the dead bodies if that was a fact 240 would not by itself establish that they assisted in the removal if the bodies
The conviction of the appellant was not justified on the material on record
Per Kapur and Hidayatullah JJ
The strained relations between husband and wife the motive to escape the giving of money and land as maintenance to the wife or child suddenly leaving the village at night with two others and almost simultaneous disappearance of Kamla and her son no search for her and absolute callousness on the part of Raghav giving of false explanation later on and his absconding were circumstances from which the Courts below were justified in concluding that Kamla and her son were murdered and Raghav bad a predominant motive to commit the murder
The inculpatory facts proved against Raghav were not capable of explanation on any other hypothesis except his guilt
The Courts below bad applied correct principles and found Raghav guilty and there was no reason to disagree with their conclusions
The non production of the jeep was a circumstance against Raghav which the Courts below were entitled to take into consideration
Articles like jeeps do not just disappear in thin air and when they do disappear and cannot be traced and when the allegation is that they have been used for carrying away the dead bodies their nonproduction or their not being found is a circumstance which a Court can take into consideration in determining the guilt of an accused person
No case under section 201 of the Indian Penal Code had been made out against Ramanuj Das and jai Devi
What section 201 requires is causing any evidence of the commission of the offence to disappear or giving any information respecting the offence which a person knows or believes to be false
It was not proved that the two appellants had caused any evidence to disappear
There may be a strong suspicion that if from the house dead bodies were removed or blood was washed the persons placed in the position of the two appellants must have had a hand in it but still that remains a suspicion although a strong suspicion
There mere absconding would not fill the gap or supply the evidence which was necessary to prove the ingredients of section 201
Anant Chintaman Lagu vs The State of Bombay
   Govinda Reddy vs The State of Mysore AIR 1960 SC 29 Stephen Seneviratnan vs The King AIR 1936 PC 289 Towell s case   Rex vs Horry  Regina vs Onufrejczyk  relied upon
241 Rex V Hodge 7 referred to