JUDGMENT

Dr. Arijit Pasayat, J. —

1. Challenge in this appeal is to the judgment of a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court upholding the conviction of the appellant for offences punishable under Sections 302 and 354 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short the ‘IPC’). The accused faced trial for alleged commission of offences punishable under Sections 302, 376 or in the alternative 376/511 IPC. However, he was convicted by learned Additional Sessions Judge, Jagadhari, as noted above and the appeal filed by the appellant before the High Court was dismissed.

2. Background facts in a nutshell are as follows:

Balwinder Kaur alias Rani (hereinafter referred to as the ‘deceased’) was the daughter of Lal Singh. Both the deceased and the present appellant accused belonged to the same village. On 20.3.1993 at about 4 PM, deceased went to the fields to serve tea to her parents who were working in the fields as labourers. Around 5 PM deceased left for her home. Her parents reached home at around 6PM and found that their daughter had not returned till then. Therefore, Lal Singh (PW 12), his wife left for the fields to look for their daughter. They found Dolu (steel container), g