# NASE~M v. DELHI ADMINISTRATION (Chandrachud, !.)

- **Citation:** [1974] 2 S.C.R. 694
- **Court:** Supreme Court of India
- **Decided:** 1973-12-12
- **Case number:** Criminal Appeal No. 61 of 1969
- **Bench:** M. H. Beg, Y. V. Chandrachud
- **Source:** https://unisonlegal.in/judgment/supreme-court-of-india/nase-m-v-delhi-administration-chandrachud-6165
- **Pages:** 7

## Headnote

Penal Code-M11rder-Circ1unstanlial 111tde11ct.
The appellant and the deceased who were friends, came to Delhi to purebuo
a motor-cycle and stayed in a hotel. The decelSOd fell ohort of money and Ibo
appellant promised to get it from 11omeone known to bim. Two J)J'OleCQ.tlon
witnesses saw the dec~ased and the appell111t enterill1 the robm of the bolel
on the night of the occurrence and the 11>pelfant leavina the hotel room In Ibo
morning on the followin1 day, Two day1 later the room· wu broken open and
the dead body of the deceased 'waa recovered. The appell111t wu lm&led at
Gaya in his sister's house and an "&ttaclle cue c:ontainina clotha, a apanaet 11t.
an allenkey set and a connectina rod were recovered from him. 1b.e' appellant
wa• convicted under s. 302 Penal Code by the Sessions JudF. In appeal th•
Hi&h Court reduced th)' s~nteq~.,to.llf~.imprisarumnt
Dismissing the appeal tr this Court,
HELD : In a case of circumstantial evidence it Is n .... ary to find whether
the circumstances on Which the prosecution relies are 'capable of auPDOdinl the
•ole inference that.the appellant is. auillY' of.tho crime ol which be la dWFd·
The circumstances have to be established by the prooeeutlcm by clear and
cogent ev.idence and those circumstances ·must not be cOaibtent wfth tbe iDDo-
<:ence of the accused. For determinina:whethcr the clrwmstan.Cel eetablllhed On
evidence raise but One infere"nce· consistent with the auUt of the accuaed, naard
must be had to the to~lity of the circumstances. Individual circumstances
considered in' 'iSOtttion ·arid divorced .from 'the context of the overatt pictute
cmergin~ from a consideratiOn of the diverse circumstan~s and their confoint
effect may by th.en15elves appear innocuou,. It is only when the various circumstances are considered'"'coniointl\'.. that _it becomes wssible to understand and
appreciate their trUe effect.· [696G~Hf ._;·.,
., .
·V~ ff'
In the instant case, the circuinstances thai, the appellant and tbe-deceaacd
who occupied a room in th. e hotel were seen enterinsc: the room:. ;~:er at mid .•
night on the night of the occurrence, the appellant wu seen 1
.the room
and leaving the hotel, the .dead body was recovered from tho room. · the appe1.
Jan~ was found indulgihg in what for a man of his means was a Spree °'-:atravagance, and a _blood stained connectina: rod was reCQvered from the house of
the appellant's sister where he was found, all Point to
the
,Wlt of 1he
accused.
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CRIMINAL APPELV•TE JURISDICTION :
Criminal Appeal No .. 80
G
of 1970.
Appeal by Special Leave from the Judglnent and Order dated the
23rd October, 1969 of the Delhi High Court in Criminal Appeal No.
61 of 1969 (Murder Reference No. 3 of. 1969)
·
Harjinder Singh and S. Sodhi, for the appellant
G. Das and R. N. Sachthty, for the respondent.
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NASE~M v. DELHI ADMINISTRATION (Chandrachud, !.)
695

## Text

694
NASEEM AHMED
'·
DELHI ADMINISTRATION
December 12, 1973
[M. H. BEG AND Y. V. CHANDRACHUD, JJ.]
Penal Code-M11rder-Circ1unstanlial 111tde11ct.
The appellant and the deceased who were friends, came to Delhi to purebuo
a motor-cycle and stayed in a hotel. The decelSOd fell ohort of money and Ibo
appellant promised to get it from 11omeone known to bim. Two J)J'OleCQ.tlon
witnesses saw the dec~ased and the appell111t enterill1 the robm of the bolel
on the night of the occurrence and the 11>pelfant leavina the hotel room In Ibo
morning on the followin1 day, Two day1 later the room· wu broken open and
the dead body of the deceased 'waa recovered. The appell111t wu lm&led at
Gaya in his sister's house and an "&ttaclle cue c:ontainina clotha, a apanaet 11t.
an allenkey set and a connectina rod were recovered from him. 1b.e' appellant
wa• convicted under s. 302 Penal Code by the Sessions JudF. In appeal th•
Hi&h Court reduced th)' s~nteq~.,to.llf~.imprisarumnt
Dismissing the appeal tr this Court,
HELD : In a case of circumstantial evidence it Is n .... ary to find whether
the circumstances on Which the prosecution relies are 'capable of auPDOdinl the
•ole inference that.the appellant is. auillY' of.tho crime ol which be la dWFd·
The circumstances have to be established by the prooeeutlcm by clear and
cogent ev.idence and those circumstances ·must not be cOaibtent wfth tbe iDDo-
<:ence of the accused. For determinina:whethcr the clrwmstan.Cel eetablllhed On
evidence raise but One infere"nce· consistent with the auUt of the accuaed, naard
must be had to the to~lity of the circumstances. Individual circumstances
considered in' 'iSOtttion ·arid divorced .from 'the context of the overatt pictute
cmergin~ from a consideratiOn of the diverse circumstan~s and their confoint
effect may by th.en15elves appear innocuou,. It is only when the various circumstances are considered'"'coniointl\'.. that _it becomes wssible to understand and
appreciate their trUe effect.· [696G~Hf ._;·.,
., .
·V~ ff'
In the instant case, the circuinstances thai, the appellant and tbe-deceaacd
who occupied a room in th. e hotel were seen enterinsc: the room:. ;~:er at mid .•
night on the night of the occurrence, the appellant wu seen 1
.the room
and leaving the hotel, the .dead body was recovered from tho room. · the appe1.
Jan~ was found indulgihg in what for a man of his means was a Spree °'-:atravagance, and a _blood stained connectina: rod was reCQvered from the house of
the appellant's sister where he was found, all Point to
the
,Wlt of 1he
accused.
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CRIMINAL APPELV•TE JURISDICTION :
Criminal Appeal No .. 80
G
of 1970.
Appeal by Special Leave from the Judglnent and Order dated the
23rd October, 1969 of the Delhi High Court in Criminal Appeal No.
61 of 1969 (Murder Reference No. 3 of. 1969)
·
Harjinder Singh and S. Sodhi, for the appellant
G. Das and R. N. Sachthty, for the respondent.
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NASE~M v. DELHI ADMINISTRATION (Chandrachud, !.)
695
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by
CHANDRACHUD, J .-This appeal by special leave is
directed
against a judgment of the High Court of ·Delhi confirming the conviction of the appellant under section 302 of the Penal Code but re,
ducing the sentence of death imposed on him by the leamed Additional
Sessions Judge, Delhi to life imprisonment.
The charge against the
appellant is that on the night between the 17th and 18 August, l 968
he committed the murder· of one Ram Kumar.
On April 11, 1968 Ram Kumar, his brother Shiv Kumar, their
mother and the appellant left Kanpur for Moradnagar. On April IS
Ram Kumar, Shiv Kumar and the appellant left Moradnagar for Delhi
for purchasing a secondhand motor-cycle. Shiv Kumar went back to
Morndnagar for catching a bus to Kanpur.
At about 7·15 p.m. on April 15, 1968 Ram Kumar and the appel·
!ant .booked a room at Hindustan Hotel, Ballimaran, Delhi.
They
signed their names in the )tote! register and entered therein
their
Kanpur address.
On the 16th they were admittedly together
and
while in search of a motor-cycle they met Abdul Hafeez, Babu Khan
and Om Prakash.
On the 17th morning Ram Kumar and the appel·
!ant struck a deal with Bahu Khan and
Om Prakash agreeing
to
purchase from them a motor-cycle
for Rs. 1,000/·. Ram Kumar
paid a sum of Rs. 25/. by way of advance and the sends agreed to
deliver the motor-cycle in the evening.
At about 6 p.m. on the 17th evening Babu Khan and Om Prakash
went to Hindustan Hotel with the motor-cycle and met Ram Kumar,
who told them that he was short of money by three or four hundred
rupees and that he had sent the appellant to get the amount from his
(the appellant's) Ustad. Babu Khan and Om Prakash waited
till
about 9-30 p.m. but the appellant did not turn up and so they went
away with the motor-cycle.
The case of the prosecution is that at about 12-30 a.m. on the
night between the 17th and 18th the deceased Ram Kumar and the
appellant were seen going to their hotel room by Lal Chand, a part·
ner of the hotel.
It is further alleged that at about 10 ·a.m. on the
18th morning, Lal Chand and his brother Tek Chand saw the appel·
!ant locking the room and leaving the hotel.
On April 20th, the
hotel premises were full of a foul smell and thereupon the lock of the
room which was occupied by Ram Kumar and the appellant was
broken open.
Inside the room was found the dead body of Ram
Kumar with two stab injuries, one n~ar the right eve brow and the
other near the right ear , and nine contused lacerated wounds on the
scalp, each injury being. brain deep.
According to medical eYidence
the stab injuries were caused with a pointed, sharp-edged weapon
while the other injuries were caused by a hard, blunt substance.
Soon after the discovery of Ram Kumar's dead body Lal Chand
1orl 0e~ •he First Tnfnr'l'lation Reoort at the Lahori Gate police station
stating that two persons who had entered thei.r·names
as
Nasim
Mahazroo and Ram Kumar occupied a room in his hotel on April 1 S,
696
SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[1974] 2 S.C.R.
that he had seen them entering the room at about 10-30 p.m.
on
.\.
the night between 17th and 18th April and that the younger of the
two (namely Nasim, the appellant) had locked the room at about JO
a.m. on the 18th and had not returned since then. The First Infer,
mation Report then refers to the circumstance' in which the dead body
of Ram Kumar was found in the room.
The appellant could not be found at Kanpur where he nornrnll)
0:
resides and it was on May 4,.
1968 that he \Y~S arrested at Gaya
(Bihar) in the house of his sister. On a search of that house an
attache case containing clothes, ~ spanner set, an allenkey set and a
connectin~ rod arc said to have been recovered.
According to the prosecution., the. appellant committed the murder
of Ram Kumar with the motive of committing theft of about six 01"
IC
se,·en hundercd rupees which he had kept with him for purchasing the:
motor-cycle.
The appellant admitted th?t he was on friendly terms.
with Ram Kumar and that they had gone to Delhi for purchasing "
motor-cycle.
He .also admitted that Ram Kumar agreed to purcha'I:
tl1e motor-cvclc from Babu Khan and Om Prakash, that a sum of
Rs. 25/- was given to Orn Prakash by way of advance, that he, the
appellant, was asked by Ram Kumar to raise some money from bis
I>
Ustad to make up the price of the motor-cycle and that during hL<
absence, Om Prakash and Babu Khan had come to the hotel but had
left before he rc•achcd the hotel.
The version of the appellant is that he was unable to get the required amount from his Ustad and therefore on reaching the hotel
at about 9 p.m. on the 17th he told Ram Kumar that be would go to
l~
Kanpur and bring the amount.. He claims to have left for Kanpur
by the 9-45 p.m. train reaching there at 6 a.m. on the 18th. He
obtained a sum of Rs. 450/- on April 19 from one Rafi and arrived
in Delhi on the evening of April 20. He says that he went to Ba!limaran where the Hindustan Hotel is situated and on bearing rumours
that a person was murdered in the hotel and that his name was involved in it he fled to Gaya out of fear.
He denied that any of the iacriF
minuting articles were recovered from his sister's house.
This is a case of circumstantial evidence and it is therefore necessary to find whether the circumstances on which the prosecution rc-
]i('S are capable of supporting the sole inference that the appellant is
guilty of the crime of which he is charged. The circumstances, in
tho first place, have to be established by the prosecution by clear and
G
cogent evidence and those circumstances must not be consistent \\ith
the innocence of the accused. For determining whether the circumstances established on the evidence raise but one inference consist.:nl
with the guilt of the accused, regard must be had to the totality of the
circumstances.
Individual circumstances considered in isolation and
divorced from tlic context of the overall picture emerging from a con:
sidcration of the diverse circumstances and tlieir conjoint effect may
H
by themselves appear innocuous. It is only when.the various circumstances are considered conjointly that it becomes possible to understand and appreciate their true effect. If a person is seen running
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NASEEM '" DELHI ADMINISTll,ATION (Clia11drac/11u/, /,I
697
awa>' on the heels of a murder, the explanation that he was fleeing in•
paiuc is apparently not .irrational. Blood-stains on the clothes
ca11>
be attributed plausibly to a bleeding nose. Even the possession of "
weapon· like a knife can be explained by citing a variety of acceptabk
answers.
But such circumstances cannot be
considered in wate.rtight compartments. If a person is found running away from the scene
of murder with
blood-stained clothes and a knife in his hand,
it
would, in a prop~r context, be consistent with the rule of circumstantial evidence to hold that he had committed the murder.
The circumstances· on which the High Court relics arc these :
(I) that on April IS, 1968 tlic .. appcllant and the deceased'.
Ram Kumar arrived at Delhi for purchasing
a motorcycle; ·
(2) that on the evening of the 15th they occupied Room No>
2 in the Hindustan Hotel, Delhi;
(3) that on the 16th, the two were together and were looking:
out for a secondhand motor-cy<le;
( 4) that on the 17th the deceased
agreed to purchase a
motor-cycle from Babu Khan and Om Prakash and paicf
a sum of Rs. 25/- to Om Prakash by way of advance.
The motor-cycle needed repairs and ·the sellers agreed tO'
deliver it in .the evening;
(5) that the price of the motor-cycle was fixed. at Rs. IOOOF
but the deceased was short of money by about Rs. 400/-;:
(6) that on the evening of the 17th Babu Khan and Om.
Prakash went to the hotel to deliver the motor-cycle
when the deceased told them that the appellant had gone:
to bring the money from his Ustad. Babu Khan and Om
Prakash waited till about 9 p.m. and since the appellant
had not returned till then they left with the motor-cycle;
(7) that Lal Chand (P.W. !), a partner of the bot.cl saw the·
11ppcllant and the deceased coming to the hotel at about
12-30 a.m.;
(8) that at about 10 a.m. on the 18th Lal Chand and bis·
brother Tek Chand (P.W. 2) who run the ltotcl in part··
ncrship saw the appellant locking Room No. :2 and leav~
ing the hotel;
·
(9) that the appellant went to Kanpur on the 18th and got
new -clothes stitched for himself from a tailor there ori
payment · of Rs.
60/- as tailoring charges.
Appellant
was generally in poor financial circumstancos;
(10) that during his stay at Kanpur the appellant stayed
at
''Himacbal Hotel' in an assumed name, 'S. N; Gander'.
He bQQked a room in the hotel at 5-30 p.m. on the lSth
and left the hotel at 4 p.m. on the 19th;
398
SUPREME COURt REPORTS
[1974] 2 s.c.R.
(11) that the appellant was traced at Gaya, Bihar, on May 4,
1968 in the house of his sister.
On a search of that
A
house a 'connecting rod' having stains of human blood
was recovered along with other articles.
There is clear and uncontroverted evidence to show that the deceased had a sum at least of about Rs. 700/- with him, that he wanted
to purchase a motor-cycle, that he and the appellant were occupying
Room· No. 2 in the Hindustan Hotel, that it was agreed to purchase
8
. a motor-cycle for Rs. 1000/- from Babu Khan and Om Prakash and
that the deceased had deputed .the appellant on the 17th evening to
get the deficit amount of about Rs. 300/. from the latter's Ustad.
These facts were never disputed and are not in dispute before us
either.
The crucial point of time at which the prosecution and the defence
.part company is the mid-night between the 17th and the 18th. Lal
Chand has stated in his evidence that at about 12-30 a.m. he saw the
deceased and the appellant entering Room No. 2. It was urged by the
learned counsel appearing on behalf of the appellant .that Lal Chand
may have made a mistake in identifying the. companion of the deceased
hut we see no foundation for this submission. Lal Chand is a proprietor of the Hindustan Hotel and he was neither interested in the
c.ieceased nor did he have any grudge against a customer like the ap-
·pellant. It is significant that in the First Information Report which
Lal Chand lodged at the Lahori Gate police station on the evening
of the 20th, he has specifically mentioned that he saw the deceased
aud the appellant entering the room at about 12·30 a.m. on the night
between .the 17th and the 18th. At the time when that Report was
lodged no one had anv. clue to the murder and Lal Chand could not
have started building up a theory of his own so as to implicate the
·appellant falsely.
The evidence of Lal Chand shows that the appellant and the deceased spent the night in Room No. 2,
Counsel for the appellant also challenged the evidence of Lal
'Chand and Tek Chand that they saw the .a1112.ellant locking the room
at about 10 a.m. on the 18th and leaving the hotel. This fact is also
· specificallv mentioned in the First Information Report which. in our
opinion. is a highly significant circumstance.
Tr.~ case of the appellant is that he left Delhi at about 9.45 p.m. on the 17th and therefore
'he could not have been seen locking the room at 10 a.m. on the 18th.
The evidence of Chhedi Lal, the Manager of Yasin Tailors, Kanpur,
is relied upon as showing that the appellant was in Kanpur at least
at about 2 p.m. on the 18th and therefore he could not have left Delhi
as late as at 10 a.m. The train takes more than 8 boors to c9ver the
distance between Delhi and Kanpur. Chhedi Lal was obviously trying to offer a helping hand to the appellant .but even then his evidence
·does not show that the appellant bad delivered the cloth to him at
2 p.m. on the 18th.
In answer to a question put by the learned
Sessions Judge, Chhedi Lal stated that he did not remember the exact
. time when the cloth was delivered to him by the appellant and that the
·cloth may have been delivered at any time between 12 noon and 8 p.m.
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N~SEEM I'. DELHI ADMINISTRATION (C/1andrach11d, I.)
G99
on the 18th. The Sessions Court and the High Court were therefore
right in accepting the evidence of Lal Chand and Tek Chand that the
appellant locked the room at about 10 a.m. and left the hotel.
These two circumstances are by themselves sufficient to deter-·
mine the guilt of the appellant.
The appellant and
the deceased
occupied .a room in the Hindustan Hotel, they were seen entering the
room together at mid-night between the 17th and 18th and the appcl·
lant locked the room on the 18th morning and left the hotel. From
that room was discovered the dead body of Ram Kumar on the 20th.
The sum of Rs. 700/· which lite deceased had c:in him was found.
missing and at the Kanpur end, the appellant was indulging in what
for a m~n of his 111eans was a spree of extravagance.
He obtained
tcrylene cloth and paid a &rn of Rs. 60/ - to the tailor while his friend
wa~ lying dead al Delhi. The appellant is supposed to have gone to
Kanpur to obtain the deficit sum of Rs. 300/- and if he was truly on
snch a bona fide mission, il passes comprehension that he should hav~
stay•d i11 the Himachal Hotel, Kanpur in the
false name of S. N.
Ga11dc;r.
The conduct of the appellant after his arrival at Kanpur 011 the
18th is a valuable link in the chain of causation. He knew that the
amount was required by his friend urgently and that his friend was
waiting for him in Delhi. On his own showing, he had a merry tilllc
in Kanpur and according to him it was on the 20th that he went back
. to Delhi. And what should he have done? He says that he went to
Baliin1aran locality whcr.c· the :f!indL1aan Hotel is situutctl and thc:n
to the hotel il<cll'. Having come to know .there that he was being involved in a murder which had taken place in the hotel, he claillls to
have !led to Gaya, out of sheer fear. This explanation is wholly irl'U·
tional and is false. He and the deceased were on intimate terms amI
there is evidence showing that the deceased and his family used to·
treat him as of. their own kin. If he were innocent, he would have' iP··
quired about his benefactor in a moment of sorrow and would nut
have run away under the magic spell of a strange sense of fear.
Added to the weight of .these circumstances is the discovery of
the blood-stained connecting rod from the house of the appellant'•
sister. That discovery was ehallcngGd before us because the two wit·
ncs:;cs who acted as Panch'as to the-seizure memo turned hostile and
tfie prosecution was left to depend on the testimony of two police
or.iccrs to prove the discovery. Jhat the two witnesses turned hos-·
tile was not surprising because both of them arc closely related to the
appelbnt. ft would have been better if the prosecution had examined
the other Panch, Sayyed Habib-ul-Rab, who is described as a retired
Judge in the Memo of Seizure. The Investigating Officer, however ·
was not asked as to why he was not examined and we see no warrant
for assuming that the witness though available was deliberately kept
bact:.
The post-mortem report shows that on the person of the deceased
were found two stab injuries and nine contused lacerated wounds.
. '700
SUPREME COUR'C REPORTS
[1974] 2 S.C.R .
The nature of the injuries shows that two different weapons
were
A
μsed in the commission of Ram Kumar's murder. But in the light of
the various. circumstances discussed above, it is impossible ,to accept
the inferen~ pressed upon us on behalf of the appellant that not only
were two different weapons used but at least two persons had participated in the commission of the murder.
Even granting that there
was more than on,c person, there is no. doubt that the appellant had
participated and was a key figure in the commission of the crime.
11
We therefore dismiss the appeal and confirm the order of con-
.viction and sentence.
P,B.R.
Appeal dismissed.