Criminal Appeal no- 1319 of 2008
Supreme Court of India
BENCH: Hon’ble Mr A.K. Patnaik, Hon’ble Mr Swatanter Kumar
DATE OF JUDGEMENT: 8th May 2012
RELEVANT SECTIONS:
- Section 302 IPC (Punishment for murder)
- Section 201 IPC (causing disappearing of evidence)
- Section 435 IPC (Theft by fire or explosives)
- Section 380 IPC (Theft in dwelling house)
BACK STORY
Mr Baldevraj Seth was the chief track engineer at the southern central railway and lived in Secunderabad with his wife, Prabha Seth and two children. Chandra Bhushan Upadhyay lived in the servant quarter of Mr Seth’s house. Prabha Seth was strict, which made AN1 hold grudges against her. One day he called his brother, Munna Kumar Upadhyaya, his brother-in-law, Maheshwar Upadhyaya and a friend, Monu Singh to his house and planned the murder of the family. They bought a knife and pistol for the same.
On 17th March 2003, after Mr.Seth left for his office, Chandra called his companions and prevented everyone including the maid, washerwoman and carpenter from entering the house. When Prabha Seth went to the washroom, Chandra first attacked her son and slit his throat. When she came out of the washroom, she was attacked by the accused and Monu fired the pistol but in turn, hurt himself. But Chandra succeeded in slitting her throat. Than around 11:30 when her daughter arrived home, the accused attacked and her and killed her. They stole all the ornament along with cash of Rs. 44,560/- and in the evening when Mr Seth returned home, Chandra fired at him killing him. Then around 11 pm he shifted the body to the car and drove it to the railway garage and using petrol burned the bodies along with the car.
Municipal counsellor filed a complaint regarding the car and bodies found on 18th March 2003. on investigating many blood strains were found inside the deceased house and the accused was arrested on 19th March 2003. He later confessed his crime. The fingerprints of the accused and blood strains were sent for examination to FSL.
FORENSIC REPORT
The autopsy was conducted by Dr Rajagopal Reddy at Gandhi medical college, Hyderabad. The incriminating remains of the bodies were collected and send for DNA profiling. According to the forensic report, the blood collected from the house belonged to the deceased and the fingerprints of all accused matched with those found in the house. The DNA profiling report helped in the identification of the bodies found in the car, thus helping in establishing the accused crime.
JUDGEMENT
The main accused, Chandra Bhushan Upadhyay along with Munna Kumar Upadhyay were held guilty under section 302, 201,435 and 380 of IPC, Maheshwar Upadhyay was held guilty under section 302 and 380of IPC while Monu Singh was held guilty under section 201 and 380 of IPC. The accused, Chandra, Munna and Maheshwar were sentenced with Life imprisonment while Monu Singh was sentenced with imprisonment of 3 years.