Judgment

PALEKAR J.:- The appellants (1) Lallubhai Devchand Shah (2) Jayantilal Lallubhai Shah and (3) Bai Nathi were convicted by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Ahmedabad of the offence under Section 302-IPC and sentenced to suffer imprisonment for life. The Gujarat High Court confirmed the conviction and sentence in appeal. The present appeal has been filed by special leave.

2. Lallubhai is the father of Jayantilal and Bai Nathi is his wife. Together they lived in a house near the Jain Temple in village Poshina in Idar Taluka. District Sabarkantha. The village is a small village with a population of about 1500. At the relevant time the deceased Bai Sharda was about 22 years old and was also living with them. Sharda had been married to another son of Lallubhai named Amritlal in about 1962-63. She was the daughter of one Kachralal Kevaldas P. W. 10 who lived in another village named Mau which is about 7 or 8 miles from Poshina. Her husband Amritlal had been living in Bombay to earn his livelihood since before his marriage. Though Sharda was betrothed to Amritlal for many years before the marriage, the marriage seems to have been a failure because Amritlal did not show any aff