CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Criminal Appeal No. 342 of 1971, Appeal by Special Leave from the Judgment and Order dated 13-4-77 of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in Criminal Appeal No. 37/77 and Death Reference No. 1/77. Mohan Behari Lal (amicus curiae) for the Appellant. I. N. Shroff for the Respondent. The Judgment of the Court was delivered by GOSWAMI, J. We have granted special leave in this case limited to the question of sentence and heard the learned counsel, appearing as amicus curiae and also for the State. These are gruesome murders wiping out all entire family of nine persons including two infants. The accused (31), Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (B.A.M.S.), a qualified medical practitioner, was a close friend of one of the deceased, Ram Swaroop (40), who was an Upper Division Clerk in the Madhya Pradesh Girls N. C. Battalion at Gwalior. The accused lived only about a furlong away from the deceased. Deceased Ram Swaroop used to practice Homeopathy as his hobby. There was thus a certain degree of common interest between the accused and deceased Ram Swaroop. Ram Swaroop had his parents, aged 60 years, his wife (35), their two sons and three daughters of the age of 16, 13, 8, 5 and 3 respectively. As stated earlier, the entire family was exterminated. Cash, ornaments and other valuables were also removed at the same time. Murder was committed on the night of 4th July, 1976 and the dead bodies were locked up inside the room and the house was locked from outside. On 6th July foul. smell was emitted from the closed house and the police was informed. The house was broken open by the police and the nine dead bodies were recovered. There is no direct evidence as to who actually committed the crimp, or even whether there was more than one person taking part in this dastardly crime. The accused stood convicted entirely on circumstantial evidence and his conviction is, now beyond question. We have heard learned counsel of both sides on the question of sentence. The recent benign direction of the penal law is towards life sentence, as a rule, and death as an exception awarding of which must be accompanied by recorded reasons. This Court has in several decisions indicated guidelines in this problem area of life and death as a result of judicial verdict but none of these guidelines can be cut and dry nor exhaustive. Each case will depend upon the totality of the facts, circumstances and other matters revealed. Law directs the course of the court. After, enactment of the Criminal Procedure Code in 1973 (Act 2 of 1974), the for a sentence of death. That is to say, there will be sentence of death only in special cases with recording of reasons so that these may be examined by superior courts. The trial court dealing with the question of sentence observed as follows : -
"Even beasts do not show unfaithfulness but
this case is a shining example of the heinous
unfaithfulness. Firstly to commit nine
murders and that to(, of small children
committed by inflicting more than one injury
which is sufficient in the ordinary course of
nature and therefore gravity of the offence
has surpassed its last limit due to which it
would be proper to say that the acts of
accused are not only beastly but ghastly
injoined with extreme greediness. There being
12-930SCI/77
total lack of extenuating circumstances the
accused deserves to be punished with extreme
penalty without hesitation".
The High Court dealing with the same question
made the following observation :-
"The accused was a trusted friend of the
deceased Rain Swaroop. But, for achievement
of Ms vicious object to relieve him of his
cash and valuables he not only killed Ram
Swaroop but also exterminated his whole family
including his aged parents, his wife and five
children two of whom were infants aged five
years and three years respectively. He com-
mitted these blood-chilling murders of the
nine innocent persons for monetary gain and to
destroy. the evidence of the crime he had
committed. It is difficult to find words
strong enough to condemn these gruesome and
dastardly murders. Ironically the accused
chose not to spare even the two infant
daughters of Ram Swaroop who dearly used to
address him as ‘Dr. Chacha’ and were
incapable of giving evidence even if they had
been left alive. The tragedy has few
parallels The accused was neither demented nor
mentally sick. There are absolutely no
extenuating circumstances for passing a lesser
sentence. On the other hand, the case, in our
opinion, is eminently fit for imposing the
extreme penalty of law". It is submitted that the accused was financially in straits with wife and two small children and this should be taken into consideration to merit clemency for the lesser sentence. These grounds had also been urged earlier before the trial court, but the horrid enormity of the crime with a considering the appropriate sentence. We agree with the courts below that there are no extenuating circumstances to justify the lesser penalty. The special reasons mandated under the law are duly recorded by both the High Court and the trial court and we are not in a position to say that those are inadequate to justify the sentence of death in these cruel and diabolical murders. The appeal is accordingly dismissed. S.R. Appeal dismissed.