JUDGMENT

RAY, J. :- This is an appeal by special leave from the judgment dated 16 July, 1970 of the High Court at Patna accepting the reference under Section 374 of the Criminal Procedure Code and confirming the sentence of death.

2. The appellant was convicted under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code for having committed the murder of Anango Nayak, a boy aged about 10 years and his younger brother Gourango Nayak, aged about 7 years.

3. Anango and Gourango were sons of Mossomat Kamila Nayak, widow of Shashi Nayak. The prosecution case was this. Both the brothers disappeared from the house of Kamila on 25 July, 1967 which was a Thursday, Kamila was a day labourer. When she returned in the evening she did not find her sons in the house. She searched for them in vain. On the following day (Friday) at midnight she was informed by some villagers named Kartik Patar, Shashidhar Nayak and Chandra that the appellant had stated before them that he had killed the two children. Kamila thereafter went to the house of the appellant in the company of those villagers and enquired from him whether it was a fact that he had killed the two children. The appellant admitted that it was a fact that he h