Culpable homicide is murder if the act by which death is
caused is done with the intention of causing death.
Expression "intent" and "knowledge" postulate the existence
of a positive mental attitude which is of different degree. We
are drawing support in this regard from the judgment of Apex
Court in Jagriti Devi vs. State of Himachal Pradesh, AIR
2009 SC 2869.
settled proposition of law, the chain of circumstances
appearing on record should be complete in all respects so
as to lead to the only conclusion that it is accused alone
who has committed the offence. The conditions necessary
in order to enable the court to record the findings of
conviction against an offender on the basis of
circumstantial evidence have been detailed in a judgment
of this Court in Devinder Singh V. State of H.P, 1990 1
Shim LC 82 which reads as under:-
[11] It has also been held by the Hon'ble Apex Court in
Akhilesh Halam V. State of Bihar, 1995 Supp3 SCC 357
that the prosecution is not only required to prove each
and every circumstance as relied upon against the
accused, but also that the chain of evidence furnished by
those circumstances must be so complete as not to leave
any reasonable ground for a conclusion consistent with
the innocence of the accused. The relevant portion of this
judgment is reproduced here-as-under:-
circumstances so proved, must form a complete
chain without giving room to any other hypothesis
and should be consistent that only the guilt of the
accused (See: Lakhbir Singh vs. State of Punjab, 1994
Suppl. (1) SCC 173)."