JUDGMENT

Santosh Hegde, J.-The appellant was charged along with his mother Balwant Kaur who was A-2 before the Sessions Court for an offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC while his father Jeet Singh A-1 and Thana Singh A-4 (who is the uncle of the appellant) were charged for an offence under Section 302 IPC simpliciter for having caused the murder on 7.11.1995 of Sukho and Gurtar Kaur, wives of the appellant.

2. The prosecution case briefly is that the deceased Gurtar Kaur was married to Baldev Singh, brother of the appellant, while the other deceased Sukho was married to the appellant. They were daughters of Pritam Singh PW-2. It is stated that after the death of Baldev Singh, his wife Gurtar Kaur also lived with the appellant as his wife. None of them had any children. The prosecution further states that Jeet Singh A-1 and Balwant Kaur A-2 along with the appellant were constantly harassing the deceased for not bringing sufficient dowry. The further case of the prosecution is that on the day before the incident in question, PW-2 Pritam Singh along with his son Phulel Singh had visited the house of A-1 to bring about a settlement in regard to the di