Judgment

B.P. Singh, J.—The appellant herein has appealed against the judgment and order dated July 13, 2004 of the High Court of Judicature of Bombay, Bench at Aurangabad in Criminal Appeal No. 227 of 2000, convicting him of the offence punishable under section 302 I.P.C. and sentencing him to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000/-, in default to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year. The High Court, while recording the order of conviction against the appellant herein, acquitted four other accused on a finding that the evidence as against them did not prove their complicity in the offence beyond reasonable doubt.

2. The facts of the case are that on 28.12.1998 accused Arun Marathe, hereinafter referred to as A-1, had gone to see off his daughter at the Parbhani railway station since she was to go on a school trip organized by her school. The appellant herein, namely, Deepak Chandrakant Patil, hereinafter referred to as A-2, was also present at the railway station. The son of the deceased was also a member of the group which was going on a school trip to different places. It appears that A-1 took objection to the fact that no school teacher was accompanyi