Criminal - Conviction - Test Identification Parade - Absence thereof - Sections 161 and 313 of Show

Criminal - Conviction - Test Identification Parade - Absence thereof - Sections 161 and 313 of Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 and Sections 302, 326 and 436 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 - Appellant/Accused was awarded capital punishment for offences of murder, grievous hurt and mischief by fire by considering it as rarest of rare case - However, no Test Identification Parade (TIP) was conducted at time of investigation - Hence, present appeal - Whether death penalty awarded to Accused by considering it rarest of rare case was maintainable whereby there was no TIP - Held, Accused was known to witnesses and they identified him by his face - Since Accused persons were known to witnesses and they were identified by face, fact that no TIP was conducted at time of investigation, was of no consequence - Oral evidence tendered by witnesses also confirmed involvement of Appellant in alleged offences - Accused also made admission of guilt that victims sustained bullet injuries by firing of him and his associates - However, impugned order put entire elements of crime on Accused which could not be sustained - Crime perpetrated by group of people, could not have been thrown upon Accused alone - Hence, participation and involvement of Appellant had been proved beyond reasonable doubt but it was not rarest of rare case - Conviction modified from capital punishment to imprisonment for life - Appeal disposed of.

Criminal - Murder - Death sentence - A minor boy aged 10 years was murdered after he was subjected to carnal intercourse and then strangulated to death - Accused was charge-sheeted with offences punishable under Sect..

Criminal - Murder - Death sentence - A minor boy aged 10 years was murdered after he was subjected to carnal intercourse and then strangulated to death - Accused was charge-sheeted with offences punishable under Sections 302, 377 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) - High Court had confirmed the death sentence - Appellant, submitted that the prosecution has failed to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt and all the circumstances put together would lead to only one inference that the accused was not guilty of the offences charged against him - Held, the prosecution succeeded in establishing its case beyond reasonable doubt that the deceased was last seen in the company of the accused and that the findings recorded by the trial Court and affirmed by the High Court call for no interference - In the instant case the crime test and criminal test stood fully satisfied against the accused - Life of a boy, the only son of the mother, was taken away in a gruesome and barbaric manner which pricks not only the judicial conscience but also the conscience of the society - Legislative policy is discernible from Section 235(2) read with Section 354(3) of the Cr.P.C., that when culpability assumes the proportions of depravity, the Court has to give special reasons within the meaning of Section 354(3) for imposition of death sentence - Legislative policy is that when special reasons do exist, as in the instant case, the Court has to discharge its constitutional obligations and honour the legislative policy by awarding appropriate sentence, that is the will of the people - Incarceration of a further period of thirty years, without remission, in addition to the sentence already undergone, would be an adequate punishment in the facts and circumstances of the case, rather than death sentence - It was ordered accordingly