82 accepted the prosecution's story with respect to the chance witnesses, PW-10 and his identification of the accused in TIP proceedings. 156. During the hearing, the appellants’ counsel had urged that the findings of the trial court are unsustainable, because they overlooked several lacunae which cumulatively tended to undermine the prosecution’s case. The omission to examine certain witnesses (such as PW-1’s driver, Nandakumar; Abhay Tiwari, who along with PW-20 found the right shoe with a bullet hole; Amit Soni, who went to the TIP of articles, with some jewellery items; Prakash Ichke, who witnessed the recoveries and seizures on 23.06.2011, Constable Dinesh, who accompanied Rahul to MY hospital, etc.). It was also emphasized that the silence of certain witnesses (such as PW-4, in regard to whether she witnessed the arrest, and search of Neha; of PW-19, who was silent about receiving a report from PW-28 regarding Neha’s suspicious activities in the morning of 2206-2011; silence by prosecution witnesses about DW-1’s role), too, cast grave doubts about the prosecution version. Furthermore, it was contended that the seizure, sealing, transmission of articles found at the crime scene and recovered from the accused’s premises, as well as open areas, as well as their chain of custody was not proved. 157. This court has previously discussed the probative value of the evidence relied on by the prosecution, and rejected the way in which Neha was apprehended, the recoveries made on 23.06.2011, the TIP of the accused, the deposition of PW-10 and of PW-8, and the DNA and shoeprint analysis. The first question is whether having regard to the rejection of some of the prosecution evidence, the case against the accused, as a whole, stands disproved. This aspect has been considered in earlier decisions of this court where defects in investigation, or lapses in the recollection during testimonies of witnesses, were involved. In State of U.P. v. Anil Singh62, this court observed as follows: 62 (1988) Supp SCC 686