Judgment

R. S. SARKARIA, J.:- This appeal is directed against a judgment, dated December 17, 1973, of the High Court of Karnataka, whereby it reversed the acquittal of the appellant and convicted him under Section 302, Penal Code. Briefly stated, the facts of the prosecution case were as follows :

Sirajuddin alias Shri appellant and three others (who will be referred to by their original numbers as accused in the trial court), namely, Altaf (accused 1) Sardar (accused 3) and Jaweed (accused 4) were tried for the murder of Smt. Khrushuddinnisa, wife of Dawood Sab. Accused 2 and 3 are the sons of different sisters of this Dawood Sab. Dawood Sab, his wife (the deceased) and P. W. 2 were residing in a house in Mohammedan Block, Malleswaram. These three were the only inmates of that house. Accused 3 and 4 were working in a laundry. Appellant herein who is the original accused 2, is a book-maker runner.

2. For about one month prior to March 3, 1972, these four accused planned to murder the deceased and take away her cash and gold ornaments from her house. They were aware that Dawood Sab used to go away every morning from his house to attend to his work as Electrical Contractor and return by 9 p. m. and that P. W. 2 also used to go to Nijalingappa College every morning and return by 5-30 p. m. or so. The story further proceeds that these four accused persons were frequently meeting in a room in Everest Hotel and some other places to hatch their plan.

3. In the morning of March 3, 1972, which is the date of occurrence, Dawood Sab went to the Fuel Depot of Keshava, where P. W. 4, and P. W. 15 were working as fuel cutters and placed orders for supply of fuel to his house. At about 2-30 p. m., Dawood Sab again went to the Fuel Depot and paid the splitting charges and went away to attend to his work as Electrical Contractor. In compliance with the order placed by Dawood Sab, P. W. 4 and P. W. 15 took the fuel wood to Dawood Sabs house, but found the door closed. P. W. 4 called : Amma Amma. Thereupon, accused 1 opened the door and asked P. W. 4 to store the fuel at a place shown by accused 1. P. W. 15 and P. W. 4 accordingly unloaded the fuel at that place and went back to the Fuel Depot. Accused 1 closed the door.

4. At about 4-15 p. m., P. W. 14 (Abdul Sattar), whose house is situated almost in front of the house of Dawood Sab, across the lane, saw all these four accused persons emerging out of the house of Dawood Sab and going away towards the railway line. P. W. 1, an auto rickshaw driver, who had come to the locality, heard the outcry of a girl "Murder! Murder". That girl had just come out of the house of Dawood Sab. P. W. 1 went into the house and found Smt. Khrushuddinnisa lying murdered, P. W. 1 then went to Malleswaram Police Station and lodged the information (Ex. P-1). The Police Sub-Inspector (P. W. 46) after registering the case reached the spot at about 5-15 p. m. Investigation commenced. The Circle Inspector (P. W. 47) also came and recorded the statements of P. W. 4, P. W. 14 and P. W. 15 and suspected these four accused persons. He directed his staff to trace and apprehend the accused. Accused 1 was arrested at 5-30 p. m. on March 7, 1972 and the appellant (accused 2) on March 7, 1972. He was interrogated by the Police Inspector. After making the statement (Ex. P-42), the appellant led the police in the presence of witnesses to the shop of the pawn-broker (P. W. 29), and asked the latter to produce the articles and jewels that he had pledged with him (P. W. 29). Accordingly, P. W. 29 produced a gold chain with pendent (M. O. 4), gold chain (M. O. 5), gold chand-thara (M. O. 7), a pair of golden ear-rings (M. O. 8), a pair of golden jumkies (M. O. 9), a pair of gold bangles (M. O. 11), a single gold bangle (M. O. 12) and a pair of golden metal (M. O. 28). These articles were seized under the Panchanama (Ex. P-32). The Police Inspector, also, took into possession the pawn-ticket and the pawn receipts and prepared the seizure memo