Judgment

Dr. Arijit Pasayat, J. —

1. Challenge in this appeal is to the Judgment of a Division Bench of the Karnataka High Court setting aside the acquittal of the appellant as was recorded by learned Sessions Judge, Chitradurga in SC No.82 of 1994. The trial court had acquitted the appellants for charge of commission of offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short the ‘IPC’).

2. The prosecution case in a nutshell is as follows :

On 30.4.1994 at about 1 p.m. the appellant herein had assaulted one Smt. Umadevi (hereinafter referred to as ‘deceased’) with an intention to cause her death, dragged her inside the cattle shed, where the accused No.2 poured kerosene oil on her person and accused No.1 set fire to her after lighting a match stick as a result of which, the said Smt. Umadevi sustained burn injuries and died. The incident in question took place in the house of the accused No.4. The deceased Smt. Umadevi had been married to the accused No.1. Thus, the accused No.1 is the husband of the deceased Smt. Umadevi. The accused No.3 Sarmangalamma had been married to the complainant-PW 1 Virupakshappa. Both the marriages were performed a