( 1 ) THE appellant who has been convicted under Section 302 Indian Penal Code for having caused the murder of a young girl after committing rape on her has been sentenced to death by the learned Sessions Judge and the said sentence of death has been confirmed in Capital Reference Case No. 3 of 1997 by the high court. The prosecution case briefly stated is that the deceased accompanied by her grandmother (Public witness 2 had gone to a pond, east of the village. While the grandmother was digging out soil, the deceased quietly left the place. When the grandmother could not find the deceased near her, she came out and on the way she met Public Witness 1 and questioned him as to whether he had seen the deceased to which Public Witness 1 replied in the negative. At that point of time both of them, namely, Public Witness 1 and Public Witness 2 heard the cry of the deceased and, therefore, they rushed to the place of occurrence. Reaching the spot of occurrence they found the accused in the act of committing rape on the deceased. It attracted the attention of other witnesses including Public Witness 3 who also had reached the place of occurrence. The accused-appellant then left the victim