JUDGMENT

These two appeals arise out of the conviction recorded by both the courts below whereby appellant No. 1. Arbind Singh was convicted under S. 302 and S. 201 of the Penal Code for causing the death of his wife and destroying her dead body and was sentenced to imprisonment for life on the first count and imprisonment for two years on the second count. The other appellants of the cognate appeal have been convicted under Section 201, I. P.C.. and have been sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for two years. Since both the appeals arise out of the same judgment we dispose them of by this common judgment. The facts are as follows:

The appellant Arbind Singh was married to the deceased Mridula Devi. The marriage took place sometime in 1974 and the deceased gave birth to a daughter and a son out of this wedlock. The incident in question occurred on the night between 23rd and 24th February, 1984. The prosecution case is that the appellant Arbind Singh hanged the deceased by the neck and caused her death. The defence of the appellant Arbind Singh was that she was suffering from diarrhoea and had died a natural death. In support reliance was placed on the prescription issued by Dr. Mithil