JUDGMENT

Dipak Misra, J.-This appeal preferred by special leave under Article 136 of the Constitution of India calls in question the judgment of conviction and order of sentence passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana in Criminal Appeal No. 199/DB of 1997 whereby the High Court has affirmed the conviction and confirmed the sentence passed by the learned Sessions Judge, Faridkot, in Sessions Trial No. 31 of 1992 wherein he had found that the appellant along with one Bikkar Singh was guilty of the offences punishable under Sections 302 read with Section 34 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code 1860 (for short ‘the IPC’) and sentenced the accused persons to suffer rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs.500/-, in default of payment of fine, to undergo further rigorous imprisonment for two months each on the first count and rigorous imprisonment for three years and to pay a fine of Rs.200/-, in default, to suffer further rigorous imprisonment for one month each on the second score with the stipulation that both the substantive sentences shall be concurrent.

2. The factual matrix giving rise to the trial is that about 3.15 p.m. on 2.4.1991, when S