Judgment :-

Swatanter Kumar, J.

1. A Bench of the High Court of Karnataka at Bangalore vide its judgment dated 19th December, 2003 while rejecting all the contentions raised by the accused Nagesh, confirmed the judgment of conviction and order of sentence passed by the trial court vide its judgment dated 18th January, 2000 convicting the accused for an offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC) and sentencing him to undergo imprisonment for life and pay a fine of Rs.2000/- in default to undergo further rigorous imprisonment for six months. Aggrieved from the judgment of the High Court, the accused has preferred the present appeal.

2. We may, at the very outset, briefly refer to the facts as per the case of the prosecution. The deceased, Smt. Nagaratna, was a student of second year Pre-University College (PUC) at the relevant time. Her parents, namely Smt. Sumitra, PW4 and Shivarai Shetti, PW9, had six daughters. PW9 was running a small tea shop at Gokarna. The deceased was earlier staying with her parents. The accused No.1, Anant, was a close relative of Nagaratna and was unmarried at the relevant time. Accused No.1 also was the resident of Gokarna but at that t