The High Court rejected appeals by Parveen and Savita Jain against their conviction and life sentence for murdering the deceased, relying on child witness testimony and circumstantial evidence including recovered stolen property.
Appeals dismissed. Conviction and life sentence maintained. Bail bonds cancelled. Appellants ordered to surrender.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
CRL. A. 380/2000 PARVEEN JAIN ..... Appellant Represented by: Mr.Mohd.Shamikh, Advocate versus STATE OF N.C.T. ..... Respondent Represented by: Mr.Varun Goswami, APP
CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE PRADEEP NANDRAJOG HON'BLE MS. JUSTICE MUKTA GUPTA
PRADEEP NANDRAJOG, J.
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that a lady has been murdered at House bearing Municipal No.C-277, Behind Ram Lila Ground, New Usman Pur, Delhi.
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“1. Multiple linear crescentric scratch abrasions resembling nail marks were seen, scattered over right cheek and chin area.
2. Multiple (about 20 in number) incised wound sizes varying from 0.5 to 1 cm scattered in different directions all over (illegible) of neck and more towards base.
3. Two incised wounds with tag of skin of 2 mm wide between them over left upper part of the neck, placed vertically. Depth be ascertained. The size of the wound is 1 cm and 1.5 cm individually.
4. Numerous punctured incised looking wounds were found to be scattered in the lower part of sternum and epigastric region of the abdomen also involving left epigastric region and also left hypochondrium involving an area 6” X 6”. Most of these injuries were part skin thickness deep and were of 0.5 cm in length. There were 4 bigger wounds of size 1.5 cm to 2.5 cm and were of
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abdominal cavity deep where from cementum was coming out of abdominal cavity.
5. Similar punctured wounds para embolical areas which defused bruisings were seen involving an area of 4” X 3”.
6. 13 incised stab wounds most of them placed horizontally over the left illic and hypogastric area with sizes varying from 1.5 cm to 3 cm in length and were 7. Depth to be ascertained.
7. 16 incised wounds all placed horizontally almost parallel to each other over front of right thigh in an area of 7” X 3 1/2”. The size of the injuries varying from 1.5 cm to 3.0 in length with skin muscle deep and so trailing of the outer edge.
8. 12 incised wounds were seen on outermedial aspect of left thigh in an area of 8” X 5”. The sizes of the wound varied from 1.5 cm to 1 cm. All injuries were placed vertically and were of skin muscle deep.”
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day of the murder of the deceased. Besides, Priyanka PW-1, the eldest daughter of the deceased informed the investigating officer, as recorded in her statement under Section 161 Cr.P.C. that the three accused were seen by her leaving the house when she returned from a temple and found her mother asleep and not responding to her calls. Jewellery of the deceased was disclosed as being stolen. The needle of suspicion was obviously pointing towards the three accused.
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police team to the person(s) to whom he had sold his share of the loot i.e. jewellery of deceased. Thereafter accused Satish Jain led the police team to two jewellery shops in Bombay and Mathura and from the shop at Mathura got recovered a pair of gold earrings, a gold ring and a gold chain of deceased from said two shops. The jewellery sold in Bombay was disclosed by the owner of the shop to have been melted.
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out of the body of her mother. She and her sisters came out of the house and started weeping whereupon their neighbour Babu Lal Gupta came there.
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“ (1) Sh.Prabha Chand Jain used to reside at H.No.C240/1-A, New Usman Pur, Delhi, on the ground floor portion along with his wife Madhu Bala Jain and three daughters, the eldest of whom is Miss Priyanka Jain.
(4) Accused Praveen Kumar Jain, his wife Savita Jain, his brother Satish Jain were also present in the tenanted premises that day.
(5) It was a holiday and children of Sh.Prabha Chand Jain had not gone to school that day.
(6) Miss Priyanka Jain along with her younger sisters had gone to temple and on returned when she knocked the door accused Praveen Kumar had told that their mother had gone to the house of their father’s sister.
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(7) He further told the girls that they were going to purchase medicine and left the house along with other accused with their bag and baggage.
(8) Smt.Shashi Gupta, who resides just opposite to the house of Prabha Chand, went to the roof of her house and found accused Savita Jain standing there from a very long time and when she questioned her, then the latter told her that she was waiting for her husband, who had gone to purchase vegetables.
(9) Priyanka Jain along with her younger sisters had gone to the house of Anup Singh Jain and on enquiry they came to know that their mother had not gone there.
(10) On return Priyanka Jain and her sisters found their mother dead in the house with multiple stab injuries on her person.
(11) Girls started weeping and on hearing their cries, Babu Lal Gupta reached there and found Madhu Bala Jain dead with stab injuries.
(12) He noted that radio was on at high volume without any programme on it.
(13) He found no traces of the accused persons in the house.
(14) Babu Lal Gupta went to the house of the brother of Prabha Chand Jain and informed him about the incident. Police reached there and found Madhu Jain lying dead with various injuries.
(15) Shashi Devi also reached there and found Madhu Bala Jain lying dead.
(16) Prabha Chand Jain reached his house when he heard
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about the incident and told the police that various ornaments and goods were missing from his house.
(17) Accused persons went to the house of Radha Verma that day and they had their meals and accused Praveen Kumar offered to pay a sum of ` 50/- to Radha Verma to purchase rice while a day before he was penniless.
(18) Accused Praveen Kumar got his hairs cut and shaved his mousetaches in order to disguise his identity. Thereafter all the accused persons left for the house of the sister-in-law of accused Praveen Kumar Jain.
(19) On 15.9.90 accused Praveen Kumar Jain and Sarita Jain were arrested from New Delhi Railway Station and from their possession gold ornament and a purser were recovered which were stolen from the house of Prabha Chand.
(20) On 21.9.90 accused Satish was arrested and from his possession a brief case of Prabha Chand was recovered.
(21) Accused Satish Chand led the police party to Bombay and Mathura where he had sold the ornaments stolen from the house of Sh.Prabha Chand Jain.
(22) Witness Sohan Singh confirms that accused Satish had sold ornaments at his shop for a sum of ` 5200/-.
(23) Ornaments sold at the shop of Sohan Singh and a brief case recovered from the possession of Satish were identified by Sh.Prabh Chand Jain as the same which were stolen from his house, on the date when his wife was murdered.”
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irresistible conclusions:-
(i) The three accused persons formed a common intention to rob and murder the deceased.
(ii) With an intention to aid, assist and help accused Parveen and Satish, accused Savita stood on the terrace of the house of deceased on the day of incident on watch and ward duty.
(iii) Accused Parveen and Satish misled daughters of the deceased on the day of incident thereby managing to escape from the house of deceased with booty.
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on the day of incident around the time of murder of deceased. The testimony of Priyanka PW-1 and Shashi Gupta PW-3 proves the same. (Accused Parveen and Savita have admitted that they were residing as tenants in a room on the first floor of the house of the deceased in their statement recorded under Section 313 Cr.P.C. We note that a suggestion was given to some of the prosecution witnesses in their cross-examination by accused Parveen and Savita that they had vacated the house of deceased two days prior to the incident but no such defence was taken by them in their statement under Section 313 Cr.P.C.)
“A child witness if found competent to depose to the facts and reliable one such evidence could be the basis of conviction. In other words even in the absence of oath the evidence of a child witness can be considered under Section 118 of the Evidence Act provided that such witness is able to understand the questions and able to give rational answers thereof. The evidence of a child witness
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and credibility thereof would depend upon the circumstances of each case. The only precaution which the court should bear in mind while assessing the evidence of a child witness is that the witness must be reliable one and his/her demeanour must be like any other competent witness and there is no likelihood of being tutored.
The decision on the question whether the child witness has sufficient intelligence primarily rests with the trial Judge who notices his manners, his apparent possession or lack of intelligence, and the said Judge may resort to any examination which will tend to disclose his capacity and intelligence as well as his understanding of the obligation of an oath. The decision of the trial court may, however, be disturbed by the higher court if from what is preserved in the records, it is clear that his conclusion was erroneous. This precaution is necessary conclusion was erroneous. This precaution is necessary because child witnesses are amenable to tutoring and often live in a world of make-believe. Though it is an established principle that child witnesses are dangerous witnesses as they are pliable and liable to be influenced easily, shaken and moulded, but it is also an accepted norm that if after careful scrutiny of their evidence the court comes to the conclusion that there is an impress of truth in it, there is no obstacle in the way of accepting the evidence of a child witness.”
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from them. The name of the deceased is Madhu and the four gold bangles Ex.P-1 to Ex.P-4 had Madhu inscribed thereon. Madhu’s husband is a gold smith and though there is no evidence that he had crafted the gold jewellery of his wife, it would be a factor to be taken into account that he probably did so and thus being the maker of the jewellery was in a good position to identify the same. In any case, he did so during testimony in Court and no serious attempt has been made to discredit him when he was crossexamined.
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41. TCR be returned.
(PRADEEP NANDRAJOG) JUDGE
(MUKTA GUPTA) JUDGE
FEBRUARY 10, 2016 mamta
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3 issues framed by the court
Whether satisfaction of child witness testimony alone without corroboration is sufficient for conviction in a murder case.
Whether the chain of circumstantial evidence regarding the recovery of stolen jewellery and last seen evidence points to guilt.
Whether the appellants successfully challenged their conviction and life sentence imposed by the Trial Court.
Colour shows how this judgement treated each authority
Dattu Ramrao Sakhar vs. State of MaharashtraApplied¶35
(1997) 5 SCC 341 Dattu Ramrao Sakhar vs. State of Maharashtra · Who else cites this
3 provisions across 3 enactments
Savita Jain
Parveen Jain
State of N.C.T.
Pradeep Nandrajog
Mukta Gupta
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
Pradeep Nandrajog and Mukta Gupta
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