SCC Online Web Edition, © 2022 EBC Publishing Pvt. Ltd. Page 13 Monday, October 24, 2022 Printed For: Navami Krishnamurthy, Jindal Global University SCC Online Web Edition: http://www.scconline.com © 2022 EBC Publishing Pvt.Ltd., Lucknow. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (4) they should exclude every possible hypothesis except the one to be proved, and (5) there must be a chain of evidence so complete as not to leave any reasonable ground for the conclusion consistent with the innocence of the accused and must show that in all human probability the act must have been done by the accused. 154. These five golden principles, if we may say so, constitute the panchsheel of the proof of a case based on circumstantial evidence.” 49. In an Essay on the Principles of Circumstantial Evidence by William Wills by T. and J.W. Johnson and Co. 1872, it has been explained as under: “In matters of direct testimony, if credence be given to the relators, the act of hearing and the act of belief, though really not so, seem to be contemporaneous. But the case is very different when we have to determine upon circumstantial evidence, the judgment in respect of which is essentially inferential. There is no apparent necessary connection between the facts and the inference; the facts may be true, and the inference erroneous, and it is only by comparison with the results of observation in similar or analogous circumstances, that we acquire confidence in the accuracy of our conclusions.? The term PRESUMPTIVE is frequently used as synonymous with CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE; but it is not so used with strict accuracy, The word” presumption,” ex vi termini, imports an inference from facts; and the adjunct “presumptive,” as applied to evidentiary facts, implies the certainty of some relation between the facts and the inference. Circumstances generally, but not necessarily, lead to particular inferences; for the facts may be indisputable, and yet their relation to the principal fact may be only apparent, and not real; and even when the connection is real, the deduction may be erroneous. Circumstantial and presumptive evidence differ, therefore, as genus and species. The force and effect of circumstantial evidence depend upon its incompatibility with, and incapability of, explanation or solution upon any other supposition than that of the truth of the fact which it is adduced to prove; the mode of argument resembling the method of demonstration by the reductio ad absurdum.” 50. Thus, in view of the above, the Court must consider a case of circumstantial evidence in light of the aforesaid settled legal propositions. In a case of circumstantial evidence, the judgment remains essentially inferential. The inference is drawn from the established facts as the circumstances lead to particular inferences. The Court has to draw an inference with respect to whether the chain of circumstances is complete, and when the circumstances therein are collectively considered, the same must lead only to the irresistible conclusion that the accused alone is the perpetrator of the crime in question. All the circumstances so established must be of a conclusive nature, and consistent only with the hypothesis of the guilt of the accused. ANALYSIS OF THE INCRIMINATING CIRCUMSTANCES RELIED UPON BY THE TRIAL COURT AND THE HIGH COURT DISCOVERY OF WEAPON OF OFFENCE AND BLOOD-STAINED CLOTHES 51. It is the case of the prosecution that on 24.01.2010 the accused appellant was picked up by the investigating officer from nearby a bus stand and was arrested in connection with the alleged crime. After the arrest of the accused appellant and while he being in the custody at the police station, he is said to have on his own free will and volition made a statement that he would like to point out the place where he had hidden the weapon of offence (Banka) and his blood-stained clothes after the commission of the alleged crime. According to him, after such statement was made by the accused appellant, he along with his subordinates set forth for the place as led by the accused. There is something very unusual, that we have noticed in the oral