JUDGMENT : 1. In Sessions Trial No. 56 of 1965, the 2nd Additional Sessions Judge of Monghyr, had tried 8 persons for offence under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Penal Code out of whom 5 persons were also tried for the offence under Section 201 of the Penal Code. Seven persons were acquitted and only one person was convicted under Section 302/34 and sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for life. The convicted person, namely, Sarjug Mahto has preferred this appeal. He has been acquitted of the charge under Section 201 of the Penal Code. 2. The facts of the prosecution case, briefly stated, are as follows. One Chunni Misser lived in village Jagatpura within the jurisdiction of Police Station Begusarai. On 15.6.64 he had gone to village Megahul, from where he returned in the evening after participating in a feast that took place at the house of one Raghunath Singh. During the absence of Chunni Misser, accused Sona Mahto and Sarjug Mahto went to his house and enquired about him, and they were told by the son of Chunni Misser, named Suresh Misser (P.W. 2) that his father had gone to take part in a feast. Upon this information being given to them, Sona and Sarjug went away. The next day at about 4 p.m. one person named Bishundeo Mahto went to the house of Chunni Misser and talked over payment of a loan which he had taken from Chunni Misser about 4 years previously. Both Bishundeo and Chunni, who had been friends, remained at the place talking till late in the night upto about 10 p.m. In the meantime, Mati Mahto, son of Bishundeo Mahto, came to call his father and Chunni Misser on the ground that Ramchandra Paswan, Jahuri Mahton and Sarpanch had gathered together and were sitting for a Panchayati. Thereafter Bishundeo, Moti and Chunni went away together along with Suresh to take part in the feast at the house of Raghunath Singh. At about 11 p.m. Suresh returned home and soon after heard the hulla of ‘jan marlak jan marlak’ coming from the side of the house of Sarjug. Suresh, however, did not go that side and instead, went to sleep. At about 11 p.m. Suresh returned home and soon after heard the hulla of ‘jan marlak jan marlak’ coming from the side of the house of Sarjug. Suresh, however, did not go that side and instead, went to sleep. Chunni did not return home that night and early in the morning Suresh went to Bishundeo to enquire about his father and the reason why he had not come back home the previous night. He was told by Bishundeo that his father had returned to the home in the night but did not stay with him. Suresh noticed at that time a number of persons proceeding towards the bundh and he too went there. On the way he met one Udai Singh of village Bishunpur and informed him that someone had killed his father and had thrown his dead body in Usrahi Bahiyar. Thereupon Suresh went to Usrahi Bahiyar which is also situated in Chakballi Tala and there he found the dead body of his father thrown, the upper portion of the body being enveloped by putting a sack round the neck. Suresh removed the sack and found that; the face of his father upto the neck had been tied with a piece of dhoti and he removed the piece of dhoti and found a number of injuries on his fathers body. The prosecution case further is that while Suresh was in Usrahi Bahiyar one Mahendra Paswan told him that Paraki Mahto, Teknarain Mahto, Jagdhar Mahton and Siboo Manton had killed his father. Thereafter Suresh left the body in Usrahi Bahiyar and returned home. It appears that meanwhile one telephone operator of Barauni Thermal Power Station named Mohammad Sarfuddin (P.W. 8) informed the Officer-in-charge, Begusarai Police Station, Shri Jagdeo Ram(P.W. 10) that a dead body covered by a sack was lying in Jagatpur village and he suspected it to be a case of murder. P.W. 10 got the information recorded in the station diary by an Assistant Sub-Inspector, Naulakh Singh. He left the place and arrived in village Jagatpur at about 12.30 p.m. He contacted Suresh Misser and on his statement drew up the fard beyan (Ext. 3) and proceeded to the place where the dead body was found thrown. P.W. 10 got the information recorded in the station diary by an Assistant Sub-Inspector, Naulakh Singh. He left the place and arrived in village Jagatpur at about 12.30 p.m. He contacted Suresh Misser and on his statement drew up the fard beyan (Ext. 3) and proceeded to the place where the dead body was found thrown. P.W. 10 examined Suresh in Usrahi Bahiyar at about 3 p.m. and inspected the dead body of Chunni Misser, which he found thrown at a distance of about 36 feet east of the bundh and was at a distance of about 130 yards south of the electric pole. The dead body was lying flat with its head in the north and legs on the south, eyes were found closed and the mouth was partly open. He found blood clots near about the elbow and blood stained injuries near the right thumb. He also found some scratch like injury on the left side of the neck. The right cheek and ear as also the right temple were found injured with blood stains thereon. The dead body was identified by Suresh Misser to be that of his father. P.W. 10 held inquest over the dead body and arranged to send the corpse to Begusarai Hospital for postmortem examination. The fard-beyan was also sent to Begusarai Police Station where the formal first information report was drawn up on its basis. 3. The place of occurrence was inspected by P.W. 10 who found sufficient blood fallen on the ground where the dead body was lying. He seized blood-stained earth in presence of witnesses and prepared a seizure list (Ext. 2). He also found one bloodstained portion of a dhoti and a bloodstained sack lying there. He seized the blood-stained dhoti and the sack. He examined some witnesses. He noticed a continuous trail of blood drops fallen from near the place where the dead body was thrown up to the place about 20 yards south-west of the house of Sarjug Mahto in a field. He also found sufficient bloodstained earth in that field near the house of Sarjug Mahto. He seized the bloodstained earth under another seizure list (Ext. 2/2). He then inspected the house of Sarjug and inside the angan he found blood like stains on the plaster of the southern wall at 18 places. He also found sufficient bloodstained earth in that field near the house of Sarjug Mahto. He seized the bloodstained earth under another seizure list (Ext. 2/2). He then inspected the house of Sarjug and inside the angan he found blood like stains on the plaster of the southern wall at 18 places. He found the eastern verandah of the house plastered with mud and on that plastered portion he found blood like stains. He removed the blood stains from the wall as well as from the verandah and prepared another seizure list (Ext. 2/3). He then went inside the southern room of the house of Sarjug and in that room he found a portion of dhoti 2-1 yards in length having identical look like the portion of dhoti which was found stained with blood and was found lying near the dead body. He seized the portion of the dhoti and the seizure list is Ext. 2/4. During the course of investigation, he sent the blood stained articles to the Director Forensic Science Laboratory, Patna, for examination and report. Ultimately, after closing the investigation, he submitted chargesheet against the 8 accused persons and one Bishundeo Mahto, who was declared to be an absconder, and hence these 8 persons were put upon their trial. 4. P.W. 12, Dr. Malti Gupta, who was the Lady Civil Assistant Surgeon at Begusarai, held post-mortem examination on the dead body of Chunni Missel on 18.6.64 at 8 a.m. and found the following 5 injuries : - 1. Abrasion 3" x 2" on left side of neck. 2. Abrasions one on right elbow 1" x ½" laterally, the other 2" x 1" on arm laterally. 3. Incised wound 1" x bone deep laterally on face. 4. Incised wound on right cheek 2" x 2" x 3" and media to right arm. 5. Incised wound on the right side of scalp 4" x 1”x bone deep with fracture of right parietal bone. On dissection blood underneath was found. All the injuries were ante-mortem. In the opinion of the doctor, death was caused due to the aforesaid injuries. In cross-examination, it was elicited that all the incised wounds were caused by sharp cutting weapon. Ribs on the right side of the deceased were found broken i.e., fractured. Fractures might have been caused by hard and blunt substance. All the injuries were ante-mortem. In the opinion of the doctor, death was caused due to the aforesaid injuries. In cross-examination, it was elicited that all the incised wounds were caused by sharp cutting weapon. Ribs on the right side of the deceased were found broken i.e., fractured. Fractures might have been caused by hard and blunt substance. The eyes of the deceased were closed and the mouth was slightly open. She did not find sign of the deceased having been gagged. 5. The defence of the appellant at the trial was of his complete innocence and that he had been falsely implicated in the case on mere suspicion. His further plea was that no blood stains were found on his verandah nor was any dhoti recovered from his southern room and the entire prosecution case was, therefore, false. 6. The learned Judge has accepted the prosecution case in substance against this appellant but some of the findings are against the contentions raised by the prosecution and his conclusions are as follows : (i) It has been held, by the learned Judge that Chunni Misser was found killed in the morning of 17.6.64 and his dead body was found thrown in Usrahi Bahiyar which also is a place inside Chakballi Tola, of course a bit removed from the portion of the Tola inhabited by persons. (ii) Even if everything was ignored, two important glaring features of the case were available; one being the existence of human blood on the verandah of Sarjug Mahto and sufficient blood in a field only at a distance of 20 yards south-west of the house of Sarjug and then a continuous trail of blood was found upto the place where the dead body was found thrown. (Sic) (iv) The learned Judge further held that when the southern room of accused Sarjug was being inspected, a piece of dhoti 2¼ yards in length was found thrown in that room. The said piece of dhoti, according to the evidence of the investigating officer, appeared to be quite identical and tallied in all material particulars with the portion of the dhoti which was found near the dead body containing sufficient blood stains. The dhoti marked Ext. I was not produced in court. The said piece of dhoti, according to the evidence of the investigating officer, appeared to be quite identical and tallied in all material particulars with the portion of the dhoti which was found near the dead body containing sufficient blood stains. The dhoti marked Ext. I was not produced in court. (v) The learned Judge, for the reason given in item (ii) above, came to conclusion that the existence of blood showed that it was the most important link in the prosecution case to indicate that the deceased was murdered in Chakballi Tola near about the house of accused Sarjug Mahto. From the nature of the injuries on the person of the deceased, it further indicated that several persons combined together had hurled blows by both sharp-cutting and hard blunt weapons. (vi) The learned Judge took the view that the charge of murder against Sarjug Mahto had been established and he was guilty under Section 302/34 of Penal Code. 7. Mr. Birendra Prasad Sinha, appearing on behalf of the appellant, has urged that the conclusions of the learned Judge are merely speculative and that it being a case of circumstantial evidence, the circumstances found against the appellant are not sufficient to show unmistakably that the appellant was involved in the crime, for which he has been found guilty. It appears to me that there is substance in the argument of learned counsel, specially in view of the fact that the learned Judge has himself found in the case of 7 accused persons that the prosecution case had not been established beyond doubt against them. 8. Learned counsel has taken us through the entire evidence in the case and has submitted that there is no evidence to connect the appellant with the crime. The main difficulty in the case is that the recovery of the piece of dhoti (Ext. I) from the appellant’s house has not been accepted by the learned Judge and the only evidence that remained was the finding of the blood on the osara of the appellant and also in the field which was at a distance of 20 yards from his house to connect him with the crime in this case. 9. I) from the appellant’s house has not been accepted by the learned Judge and the only evidence that remained was the finding of the blood on the osara of the appellant and also in the field which was at a distance of 20 yards from his house to connect him with the crime in this case. 9. The question, therefore, for consideration in this case is: Whether the finding of the blood at the two places as mentioned by the learned Judge would be sufficient to lead to the conclusion that the appellant must be the murderer or had participated in the murder of Chunni Misser ? 10. It is now too well settled that circumstantial evidence must be such as to lead to a conclusion which, on any reasonable hypothesis, is consistent only with the guilt of the accused persons and not with his innocence. See for instance the case of (1) Palvinder Kaur V. The State of Punjab A.I.R. 1952 Supreme Court 354; wherein their Lordships have referred to the case of Reg Vs. Hodge [(1838) 2 Lewin 227] where Baron Alderson had said as follows : "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 mislead itself, to supply some little lick that is wanting, to take for granted some act consistent with its previous theories and necessary to render them complete." 11. We have, therefore, to consider whether in the present case, the circumstantial evidence upon which the conclusion is founded is sound or not to support the conviction of the appellant in the light of the observations made by the Supreme Court in the aforesaid case. 12. The prosecution had examined, among others, two witnesses to support its case namely, Ramgulam Singh (P.W. 4) and Ramcharittar Singh (P.W. 3). The substance of the evidence of Ramcharittar Singh (P.W. 3) was that he heard in the early morning that Chunni Misser was killed. 12. The prosecution had examined, among others, two witnesses to support its case namely, Ramgulam Singh (P.W. 4) and Ramcharittar Singh (P.W. 3). The substance of the evidence of Ramcharittar Singh (P.W. 3) was that he heard in the early morning that Chunni Misser was killed. Similarly, Ramgulam Singh (P.W. 4) was examined to prove that at about 11 p.m. in the night of occurrence he had heard the hulla of 'jan marlak jan marlak' coming from the house of Sarjug Mahto, and having heard the hulla, the witness went to that side and saw many persons assembled near the house of accused Sarjug. The trial Judge considered their evidence in great detail and has rejected the evidence of both the witnesses. Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the State has not asked us to review their evidence and accept their testimony. In my opinion, their evidence has been rightly rejected. So the case ultimately turns upon the finding of blood as noticed by the tried Judge. The evidence of the Investigating Officer (P.W. 10) shows that he had taken the plaster from the wall on which blood like stains were found and had taken the earth and after preparing seizure list he had taken steps to send them to the Chemical Examiner for examination and report. The forwarding letter of the Investigating Officer is marked Ext. 9. It appears from the list enclosed that serial no. D was blood-stained earth taken from the verandah of accused Sarjug Mahto. In the forwarding letter, P.W. 10 had written that it had to be ascertained whether it was human blood, and then it had to be found out whether "these are of the one and the same man". He also suggested that blood grouping was necessary. The report of Chemical Examiner shows that the paper packets marked D contained earth which bore reddish brown stains in large areas, but it was not sufficient for test as to the blood grouping. The learned Judge has observed that the appellant has not given any explanation as to the existence of the blood found in his osara and also a trail of blood from a distance of 20 yards south-west of the house to the place where the dead body was found. The learned Judge has observed that the appellant has not given any explanation as to the existence of the blood found in his osara and also a trail of blood from a distance of 20 yards south-west of the house to the place where the dead body was found. The learned Judge has observed that the accused has merely denied and in view of the fact that these facts were proved by the Investigating Officer and the seizure witness, and in view of the fact that the blood found in the angan might have been due to menstruation of females, for which no female has been examined on behalf of the defence, the irresistible conclusion was that the appellant must have been the murderer in this case. The learned Judge has further found that the motive was not satisfactorily established in this case as Sarjug Mahto had no animus to kill the deceased. Sarjug Mahto was not even a debtor of the deceased and had no grudge of any kind, which would have led him to commit the crime though motive was suggested against two of the accused persons, namely, Sona and Bishundeo with whom the deceased had some dispute over money-lending transaction. 13. The learned Judge further considered that the accused could not get the benefit of the fact that he was not the sale occupant of the house as evidence disclosed that Surjug Mahto had two sons, both of whom were minors, one being about 14 years old, and therefore, the only conclusion that could be drawn is that the other members of the family would not have taken part in the crime. Quite clearly, the learned Judge appears to have overlooked the fact that the appellant is about 70 years old and could not himself have taken active part in the assault which resulted in the death of Chunni Misser. There is also the defence suggestion that Chunni Misser was a man of questionable character and was a suspect in a dacoity case for the commission of dacoity in the house of one Baldeo Singh. The learned Judge found that this circumstance by itself was not sufficient to throw doubt on the prosecution case. There is also the defence suggestion that Chunni Misser was a man of questionable character and was a suspect in a dacoity case for the commission of dacoity in the house of one Baldeo Singh. The learned Judge found that this circumstance by itself was not sufficient to throw doubt on the prosecution case. In the opinion of the learned Judge, Sarjug Mahto was the only adult member in the house and the fact that no satisfactory explanation had been furnished about the presence of blood in the verandah as also the trail of blood 20 yards away from his house to the place where the dead body had been recovered was unmistakably sufficient in the link of the chain of circumstantial evidence to show that the charge had been brought home to the appellant. It is difficult to accept this reasoning as correct, because from the mere finding of the blood in the osara of the house of the appellant, it is not possible to come to the conclusion that the appellant either himself committed or was responsible for the commission of the murder. It cannot be said that the finding of the blood is consistent only with the guilt of the appellant and is inconsistent with his innocence. There are at least two sons of Sarjug Mahto who were the inmates of the house and there might be other persons also, for which the prosecution has led no evidence and therefore, it cannot be said unmistakably that the appellant was the only person who would have been responsible for the crime. I am, therefore, of opinion that the chain of circumstantial evidence is not sufficient in this case so as to hold the appellant guilty of the charge leveled against him beyond doubt. 14. For the foregoing reasons, the appeal succeeds and is allowed. The conviction and sentence are set aside and the appellant is acquitted of the charge made against him. He will now be set at liberty unless required in some other case. I agree Appeal allowed