(1) THE sole appellant is convicted under S. 302 Indian Penal Code and sentenced to death by the Additional Sessions Judge, Bankura. The High Court on reference confirmed the conviction and sentence. Hence the present appeal. The charge against the appellant was that on 17/02/1988 at about 1 a.m. he took his wife in a truck and drove the truck to a jungle. There he throttled her to death and ran the truck on her and thereafter dragged the body from the jungle to the left of the road and disappeared. The case mainly rested on the sole testimony of Public Witness 18, the cleaner of the truck. The trial court examined 22 witnesses. The other witnesses only spoke about certain circumstances. The learned Addi- tional Sessions Judge mainly relying on the evidence of Public Witness 18 convicted the appellant. The same was affirmed by the High court. It is submitted in this appeal that Public Witness 18 was examined at a belated stage and therefore his evidence does not inspire confidence and also is not trustworthy. Fur- ther submission is that the evidence of the other witnesses even, if accepted, did not connect the accused. To appreciate these contentions it becomes necessary t