SCC Online Web Edition, © 2022 EBC Publishing Pvt. Ltd. Page 1 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2022 SCC OnLine SC 1396 In the Supreme Court of India (BEFORE UDAY U. LALIT, C.J. AND S. RAVINDRA BHAT AND J.B. PARDIWALA, JJ.) Ramanand alias Nandlal Bharti … Appellant; Versus State of Uttar Pradesh … Respondent. Criminal Appeal Nos. 64-65 of 2022 Decided on October 13, 2022 Advocates who appeared in this case : For Appellant(s) Mr. S. Niranjan Reddy, Sr. Adv. Mr. Vibhor Jain, Adv. Ms. Stuti Rai, Adv. Mr. Sahil Raveen, Adv. Ms. Akhila Palem, Adv. Mr. Mahfooz Ahsan Nazki, AOR Mr. Polanki Gowtham, Adv. Ms. Rajeswari Mukherjee, Adv. Ms. Niti Richhariya, Adv. For Respondent(s) Mr. Adarsh Upadhyay, AOR Mr. Abhishek Chaudhary, Adv. Mr. Anurag Kishore, Adv. Mr. Amit Singh, Adv. Mr. Aman Pathak, Adv. Mr. Ajay Prajapati, Adv. The Judgment of the Court was delivered by J.B. PARDIWALA, J.:— Mark Twain, the great American writer and philosopher, once said: “It is like this, take a word, split it up into letters, the letters, may individually mean nothing but when they are combined they will form a word pregnant with meaning. That is the way how you have to consider the circumstantial evidence. You have to take all the circumstances together and judge for yourself whether the prosecution have established their case.” 2. These appeals, by special leave, arise out of the judgment and order dated 09.07.2021 passed by the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, Bench at Lucknow confirming the death sentence awarded to the accused appellant herein. 3. The accused appellant has been held guilty of the offence punishable under Section 302 of the Penal Code, 1860 (for short, “the IPC”). The trial court (Sessions Judge, Lakhimpur Kheri) sentenced the accused appellant to death under Section 302 of the IPC and pay fine of Rs. 20,000/- and in default of payment of fine to undergo further rigorous imprisonment for one year. While the Sessions Judge, Lakhimpur Kheri made a reference to the High Court for confirmation of death sentence under Section 366 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (for short, “the CrPC”), the accused appellant preferred Criminal Appeal No. 1959 of 2016 putting in issue his conviction and sentence. The High Court dismissed the Criminal Appeal No. 1959 of 2016 filed by the accused appellant thereby confirming the death reference under Section 366 of the CrPC.