LexDEONANDAN MISHRA versus THE STATE OF BIHAR
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1955 S1pllmb-r 28 570 SUPREME COURT REPORTS DEONANDAN MISHRA fl. THE STATE OF BIHAR. [1955] (VIVIAN BosE, JAGANNADHADAS and B. P. SINHA JJ.] Circumstantial evidence-Conviction based thereon-Standard of proof-Various links completing the chain of evidence-Failure to offer an explanation by the accused-Whether an additional link in the chain. The standard of proof required to convict a person on circum- stantial evi<lence is well-established by a· series of decisions of the Supreme Court. According to that standard the circumstances relied upon in support of the conviction must be fully established and the chain of evidence furnished by those circumstances must be so far complete as not to leave any reasonable ground for a conclusion con- sistent with the innocence of the accused. The appellant was convicted under s. 302 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to transportation for life. There were no eye~ witnesses to the murder and the conviction of the appellant rested solely on the circumstantial evidence which was relied on by the courts below. The various facts which formed the links in the chain of circum- stantial evidence in the present case taken together advanced the case against the appellant very much beyond suspicion and reason- ably and definitely pointed to the appellant as the person who committed the murder. In a case like the present when the various links in the chain had beez:i satisfactorily made out and the circumstances pointed to the appellant as the probable assailant with reasqnable definiteness and in proximity to the deceased as regards time and situation, and he offered no explanation, which if accepted, though not proved, would afford a reasonable basis for a conclusion on the entire case consistent with his innoceqce, such absence of explanation or false explanation would itself be an additional link which completed the chain. Hanumant v. The State of Madhya Pradesh ([1952] S.C.R. 1091 ), referred to. CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Criminal Appeal No. 19 of 1955. Appeal by Special Leave from the Judgment and Order dated the 11th May 1954 of the Patna High Court in Death Reference No. 8 of 1954 with Criminal Appeal No. 142 of 1954 arising out of the Judgment 2 S.C.R. SUPREME COURT REPORTS 571 and Order dated the 12th March 1954 in Sessions 1955 Trial No. 2 of 1954. Deonant1an Mishra v, B. P. Maheshwari, for the appellant. Thi Stall of Bihar M. M. Sinha, for the respondent. 1955. September 28. The Judgment of the Court was delivered by JAGANNADHADAS J.-This is an appeal by special leave. The appellant Deonandan Mishra (Deonandan Missir) who was a stenographer to the Inspecting Assis- tant Commissioner of Income-tax, Patna, has been convicted under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code for having committed the murder of his second wife, Mst. Parbati Devi, on the night of the 3rd/4th Septem- ber, 1953 and sentenced to transportation for life. The deceased was married to the appellant in or about the year 1941 and was his second · wife. As appears from the subsequent events, she was considered to be a woman of loose morals. She· appears to have been forsaken by her husband as also by her father in or about the year 1945 and to have sought shelter in the Anath Ashram at Gaya. Through the intervention of the Secretary of the Ashram and with the consent of both the husband and the father, she got re- married to one Nand Lall of Punjab in December, 1945. After a stay of about an year and a half with Nand Lall in Punjab, she appears to have left him on account of alleged ill-treatment. She came back to the Anath Ashram at Gaya in June, 1947, but left it again in October, 1947. What happened thereafter is not clear from the evidence and her whereabouts between October, 1947 and August, 1953, are not known and do not seem to have been traced. All that appears is that for some time prior to the date of the murder, she was found going up and down in places near about Gaya and that particularly on the 2nd and 3rd September, 1953, i.e., two days prior to her murder she was found going between Gay:l and Patna and a place Chakand in between these two places. Early morning at about 7 A.M. on the 4L.1 September, 1953, P. W. 10, Havildar, found a naked dead body of a 1955 IMnandan Mishra v. T/,. Stali of BU.or japrnadhatlas ]. sn SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1955] female lying in the Kabristh
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