46 35.5 cm, and a photograph of him wearing a black diamond-like beaded bracelet on his right hand; Ex. P17 (Manoj) included looted jewellery (two gold bangles, part of a broken mangalsutra), an iron knife of overall length of 34.5 cm and a photograph of him wearing brown coloured sunglasses. As per the prosecution, these articles are related to their crime. 84. PW-3 and PW-6, both depose that after the seizure of the article each of them remained with the police till 5:00 PM on 22.06.2011. The prosecution version is that the arrest of all three accused persons were completed by 10:05 AM, their disclosure statements recorded, and all the articles seized by 10.35 AM (as per Ex. P17). There is no explanation as to why further investigation was not taken up. All that seems to have occurred on 22.06.2011 thereafter, i.e,. after 10:35 AM, was the nails of the accused were cut and seizure memos prepared (as deposed to by PW-3 and PW-6). The seizure memos in this regard are Ex. P18, P19 and P20. These were drawn in the early afternoon: Ex. P18 (13:05 hrs); Ex. P19 (13:15 hrs) and Ex. P20 (13:25 hrs). The prosecution alleged that later at Rahul’s behest the left shoe worn by him during the incident was seized at 16:40 hrs from an open area near his house (Ex. P21). 85. The prosecution did not explain why there were breaks in the investigation, given that the disclosure statements of all accused, and consequent recoveries took place in the morning of 22.06.2011. It is also a matter of record that though the accused were arrested that day they were only produced before the magistrate on the next day. In other words, there was no impediment for the police to have proceeded further or taken immediate steps to secure all evidence. This aspect is, in this Court’s opinion, important because even if the manner in which Neha was arrested was to be discounted (as discussed earlier) the fact that they were arrested in the presence of PW-3 and PW-6, further proceedings and investigative steps including the seizure of articles at the behest of the accused and pursuant to their statements, stand