JUDGMENT
Mathur, J.
1. When in the morning of 2nd June, 1996 three shephered boys viz; Kalu Rani aged 14 years, Dayal Ram aged 9 years and another Kalu Ram S/o Ram Karan aged 15 years, left for the forest for grazing cattle, they had no forebonding that it was their last journey. The disappearance of three boys and the cattle rocked the villagers of Fatehgarh. The search did not yield, as such, in the morning of next clay, P.W. 1 Mani Ram lodged the missing report at Police Station, Hanumangarh. In the afternoon at about 4, dead bodies of two missing boys were detected floating in a pond constructed in the field of Ram Kumar Bhakhar in Chak 23 SSW. The dead body of third child was found in a field on the eastern side of the pond. The cattle were missing. It was suspected that somebody committed theft and murdered the boys. On this information, police registered a case for offence under Sections 302, 379 IPC and triggered the investigation. Police prepared the inquest report and sent dead bodies for autopsy. Appellant Sarwan Ram was arrested and recoveries were made. After usual investigation, police laid chargesheet against the appellant for the offence under Sections 302, 382 IPC.
2. Appellant denied the charges levelled against him and claimed trial. Prosecution examined as many as 20 witnesses and produced certain documents. In statement under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, appellant denied the correctness of the prosecution evidence appearing against him. Trial Court found the charges levelled against the appellant proved and convicted & sentenced in the manner already noticed.
3. The prosecution relied upon the following piece of circumstances to prove the guilt of the appellant.
i. Appellant had motive to commit the murder of Kalu Ram S/o Mani Ram, Kalu Ram S/o Ram Karan and Dayal Ram;
ii. Recovery of the she-goats and the sheep in pursuance of the information given by the appellant;
iii. Recovery of blood stained ‘gandasi’ in pursuance of the information of the appellant;
iv. Recovery of blood stained pants, bushirt, pair of shoes and the socks belonging to appellant in pursuance of his information; and
v. Non-explanation of circumstances appearing against him;
4. Assailing the conviction, it is contended by the learned counsel for the appellant that the prosecution has failed to prove the circumstance of recovery of she-goats and sheep by positive evidence for the simple reason that there is no identification of the she-goats and the sheep by way of arranging an identification parade or before the court, as such, the recovery can not be connected with the crime. On the other hand, learned Public Prosecutor has supported the judgment of the trial Court.
5. It is well established that in a case of circumstantial evidence, the prosecution must establish each circumstance firmly by cogent evidence and all the circumstances, taken together, should form a chain pointing towards the guilt of the accused and the cumulative effect of the circumstances must lead to no other inference but the guilt of the accused.
6. Before proceeding to deal with each circumstance formulated by the prosecution, we shall briefly survey the oral evidence produced by the prosecution.
7. P.W. 1 Mani Ram stated that his son Kalu Ram & grand son Dayal Ram and Kalu Ram, son of his brother-in-law Ram Karan had gone with herd of the cattle for grazing in the forest. They did not return in the evening. A search was made without yield. On the next day, intensive search was made. At about 4 PM, the dead bodies of two boys were found in a diggi (pond) in Chak 23 SSW belonging to Ram Kumar Bhakhar. Another dead body was found on the eastern side of the pond. He also stated that the herd consisted of 35 she-goats and six sheep belonging to him. He lodged the F.I.R. of the incident at Police Station, Hanumangarh. He identified the she-goats belonging to him. Some of the she goats were recovered from the place known as ‘Semnala’. The weapon of offence and the clothes of the deceased were also recovered in his presence. He admitted in the cross examination that no identification parade of the cattle was arranged. There is lengthy cross examination but nothing has elicited to discredit the testimony of this witness.
8. P.W. 2 Hari Ram & P.W. 3 Hans Raj are the formal witnesses of the police memos pertaining to recovery of the dead bodies. P.W. 4 Ramesh, P.W. 5 Sita Ram, P.W. 6 Balani Sahni and P.W. 7 Phul Singh have stated that they purchased she-goats for Rs. 225/- each from the appellant. Police had brought him to their places and got recovered the she-goats. P.W. 8 Prabhu Ram identified the recovered she-goats and the sheep as he used to take them regularly for grazing. He has stated that his brother Kalu Ram, another Kalu Ram and Dayal Ram left the village at about BAM for grazing the cattle. In the evening, they did not return and, therefore, he also went in search of them. On the next flay, two dead bodies were found in the diggi belonging to Ram Kumar. He identified the she-goats and the sheep recovered by the police. He proved the recovery memos. In the cross examination, he admitted that no identification parade of the she-goats was arranged. P.W. 9 Nihal Singh is a motbir of recovery memo.
9. P.W. 10 Had Singh is a business man engaged in sale & purchase of cattle. He stated that the appellant approached him for sale of she-goats and sheep. He purchased 14 she-goats and 7 sheep from him. In consideration, he paid Rs. 5000/-. He purchased the she-goats & sheep at the rate of Rs. 500/- each. Five cattle were sold by him to Noora Ram. He also stated that the appellant got the said sold cattle recovered from him. In the cross examination, he admitted that when the police arrived for recovery of the she-goats, appellant was already sitting at his place.
10. P.W. 11 Raju stated that while he was sitting alongwith Devilal, Jeet and Munshi Ram were sitting near the herd and preparing tea, a person approached to him and introduced himself as businessman and offered she-goats and sheep for sale. It is stated that he was in the possession of 30 she-goats and 6-7 sheep. He enquired as to where from he had brought cattle in large number. He offered ‘San bakra’ (goat), which was not accepted by him. However, he left the said goat with them. After 15-20 days, the police visited his house and recovered the said goat. Mani Ram identified the said goat belonging to him. He also stated that certain police papers were prepared with respect to recovery of said goat. He identified the appellant in the court as a person who delivered him the goats. In the cross examination, he denied the suggestion that he had visited the court in the company of Mani Ram. He also denied the suggestion that Mani Ram asked him to identify the appellant as a person, who delivered the goat. He also denied the suggestion that Mani Ram was in anyway related to him. The statement of P.W. 12 Devilal is almost in the line of P.W. 11 Raju. P.W. 13 Sohan Singh identified the appellant, the person who had approached to him and offered cattle for sale. He sold she-goat to some other person at a rate of Rs. 250/-. The statement of P.W. 14 Mani Ram is almost in the line of statement of P.W. 11 Raju. P.W. 16 Ramjilal, P.W. 17 Gamandi Lal and P.W. 19 Mohan Lal are the witnesses of link evidence with respect to recovery of incriminating articles. P.W. 18 Sarwan Ram is the investigating officer. He has given the details of investigation including arrest of the accused and recoveries. P.W. 20 Surendra Singh was the incharge of Police Station, Hanumangarh. He has given details with respect to lodging of FIR and further investigation.
11. P.W. 15 Dr. R.K. Gupta was one of the members of the Medical Board, who conducted the post mortem of the dead bodies of three deceased persons viz; Kalu Ram S/o Mani Ram, Kalu Ram S/o Ramkaran and Dayal Ram S/o Ram Pratap. He conducted the post mortem of the dead body of Kalu Ram S/o Mani Ram vide Ex. P. 20 and noted the following injury on his person:
“Incised wound 4″ x 2″ cutting vertebra & spinal cord of neck.”
In his opinion, the cause of death was shock and haemorrhage due to injury on the spinal cord & vessels of neck due to heavy sharp edged weapon injury, which was antemortem in nature.
He also conducted the post mortem of dead body of Kalu Ram S/o Ramkaran vide Ex. P. 21 and noticed the following injury on his person :
“Lacerated wound 3/4″ x 1/4″ x bonedeep above left eyebrow.”
In his opinion, the cause of death was internal haemorrhage & injury to brain due to heavy blunt impact over skull, which was ante mortem in nature.
He also conducted the post mortem of dead body of Dayal Ram S/o Ram Pratap vide Ex. P. 22. In his opinion, the cause of death was asphyxia due to drowning.
He also examined appellant Sarwan vide Ex. P. 23 on 20th June, 1996. He noticed a simple injury of duration of two to three weeks.
12. Now, we proceed to deal with each piece of circumstantial evidence relied upon by the prosecution.
i. Recovery of she-goats and the sheep in pursuance of the information given by the appellant.
The appellant was arrested on 12.6.96 vide Ex. P. 46. On 16.6.96, he made a disclosure statement before P.W. 20 Surendra Singh to the effect that he sold 14 she-goats and 7 sheep, in total 21 cattle, to P.W. 10 Hari Singh of village Kotbhai. In pursuance of the said information, P.W. 18 Sarwan Ram, Sub Inspector, got 11 she-goats and 5 sheep recovered. The recovery was made in the presence of motbirs P.W. 9 Nihal Singh and P.W. 13 Sohan Singh. P.W. 2 Mani Ram, out of recovered 11 she-goats, identified 3 belonging to him. Similarly, P.W. 8 Prabhu Ram identified 7 she-goats and 5 sheep belonging to him.
13. On 16.6.96, appellant made a disclosure statement Ex. P. 30 before P.W. 20 Surendra Singh to the effect that he had sold 3 she-goats and one goat to certain Bihari labourers. In pursuance of disclosure statement, one goat was recovered from P.W. 6 Balani Sahni. He has stated that recovery has been made in the presence of Omprakash and PW 12 Devilal. The goat has been identified by P.W. 8 Prabhu Ram. He has stated that recovered she-goat belonged to him. He has given the identification marks of she-goat.
14. It is contended by the learned counsel that the recovery of she-goats is of no consequence, as there is no substantive evidence to connect the recovered she-goats and sheep with the alleged crime. It is submitted that the no identification parade was arranged for identification of the recovered she-goats and sheep. There is no identification of the she-goats even in the court. We are unable to agree with the submission of the learned counsel. It is of-course true that general rule is that identification of property in court is of no consequence unless it is preceded by test identification proceedings. In certain cases, where identification of property in the court is found to be reliable, there can be no difficulty in accepting such recoveries, even in absence of previous test identification. Further, identification in case of large number of cattle may be difficult. However, the fact is that the appellant was found in possession of she-goats and sheep and the prosecution has succeeded in establishing the case to the extent that large number of she-goats and sheep were found in possession of appellant just after the incident in which three boys were found dead and large number of cattle missing. There is no explanation of the accused appellant as to how he came in possession of large number of cattle. The fact of recovery of large number of cattle in pursuance of his information. Shortly after missing of cattle and murder of shephered boys, not capable of explanation would be admissible as conduct under Section 8 of the Evidence Act, against the appellant. Thus, we are of the view that prosecution has succeeded in establishing first piece of circumstance connecting the appellant with the alleged crime.
ii. Recovery of blood stained ‘gandasi’:
The appellant made a disclosure statement vide Ex. P. 49 on 19.6.96 leading to recovery of ‘gandasi’ and his clothes i.e. pants and shirt and a pair of shoes vide Ex. P.50. The recovery was made in the presence of P.W. 1 Mani Ram and Sukh Ram. The blood stained ‘gandasi’ and clothes were packed and sealed on the spot. The prosecution has produced the link evidence to establish that the articles which were packed and sealed on the spot, were delivered to the Forensic Science Laboratory intact. Since this aspect has not been challenged, we do not consider it necessary to refer evidence in that regard. As per the FSL report Ex. P. 52, the blood on the ‘gandasi’ was found to be of human origin. Thus, the prosecution has succeeded in establishing the recovery of blood stained ‘gandasi’ in pursuance of the information given by the appellant.
iii. Recovery of blood stained pants, bushirt and pair of shoes in pursuance of the information given by the appellant referred-to above.
The said clothes have also been found to be of human origin as per the FSL Report Ex. P. 52. The appellant has failed to give any explanation as to the presence of blood stains on his clothes. Thus, prosecution has succeeded in establishing each circumstance firmly by cogent evidence and all the circumstances, taken together, point towards the guilt of the appellant. Accordingly, we hold that the prosecution has established beyond any manner of doubt the charges levelled against the appellant. The trial Court has rightly convicted and sentenced the appellant for the offence under Section 302 IPC.
15. Consequently, we find no merit in the instant appeal and the same is dismissed. The appellant is in jail. He will serve out the remaining part of the sentence.